1979 Repco Reliability Trial - Division N (Sydney to Melbourne)

Crews departed Sydney early Friday evening for the overnight run to Albury where the event effectively finished at lunchtime on Saturday. After an overnight rest the cars headed down the highway for the ceremonial finish at the Melbourne Showgrounds at midday on Sunday, August 19th, 1979.

The route comprised 3 special stages totalling 49.8 km, 4 trial stages totalling 206.1 km and 10 transport stages totalling 1,232.8 km for a total division distance of 1,488.7 km of which 17% was competitive. This was not only the shortest division but was also the one with the lowest proportion of competitive distance.

This was almost like a normal overnight rally with some great mountain stages in eastern Victoria and a very nice final special stage in the Stanely pine plantation near Beechworth. Brock simply needed to protect his 6 minute lead and the times reflected this – not super quick but quick enough to have Ferguson and Bell’s measure, and besides, they were probably under team orders to hold position. There was a remote chance that Carr could pick up the 30 minutes needed to take Dunkerton’s fourth place and while Carr was flying, he only gained 13 minutes on Dunks. Loader, Herrmann and Barth were separated by only about 20 minutes although the published scores in Sydney had Herrmann closer to Loader and Barth further behind. In the end, Herrmann gained enough time to be clear of Barth but did not catch the Lancer (even though the results published immediately after the event suggested that he had), despite some great times. Portman’s car was failing and he was forced to skip sections, dropping from seventh to 22nd.

Sydney to Albury

The late afternoon departure from the Sydney Showgrounds turned to farce when the officials had neither a starting order nor route instructions ready for the 5.00 pm scheduled departure. In the end, the first car actually departed at 5.46 pm. This included the one hour service allowance, with the notional departure time of 6.00 pm being delayed until 6.46 pm. The late departure was welcome for many crews who reported that they had not received booked wake-up calls at their hotels and had so overslept. The evening would be mostly driving down through Canberra to the Victorian border where the real competition for the division would be held, but two special stages were included along the way.

The stages in eastern and north-eastern Victoria were a fitting competitive finale to the event. Generally good quality but challenging mountain roads ensured that the pressure was there right up to the end, and if the margin between placings was close, there was ample opportunity to make up a handful of minutes or to make an error. Brock had less than 7 minutes on Ferguson, whereas Dunkerton had a fairly comfortable 30 minutes margin over Carr. Once Portman was forced to skip controls, there was only about 20 minutes between Loader, Herrmann and Barth. Davis had 2 hours on Watson for 10th place but a broken axle on the 180B would bring that back to a paper thin margin.

N1 – Sydney Transport

58.6 km in 1h25m, First Car ETA 7:25 pm Friday, delayed to 8:11 pm

The early cars were thrown into Sydney’s Friday peak hour traffic but had ample time given that a nominal hour of service time was included. Crews were headed for Oran Park Raceway near Camden for a “publicity” special stage and plenty of time was allowed for the transport. Chaos reigned supreme at Oran Park as crews were directed the wrong way to the control to check in, but it kind of worked out in the end. There was a seemingly random time hold here as crews were given the opportunity to do a practice run over the stage before the real timed run.

Of the 92 cars in the event, plus the “running under protest” Carter:

85 cars arrived at Oran Park on time
4 were late or early at Oran Park
4 skipped Oran Park, of which two (Webster, Donoghue) headed directly to Albury, one (Moore) picked up the two Canberra controls and then headed for Albury and one (Lunney) picked up the last special stage at Beechworth before Albury.

N2 – Oran Park Special Stage

3.0 km in 2m, First Car ETA 7:27 pm Friday, delayed to 8:13 pm, depart 8:30 pm (Map)

Oran Park was a low point of the event for the organisers – the stage was poorly organised, the officials didn’t seem to know what they were doing and with only one gate to the circuit open there were ridiculous traffic snarls. With cars doing a practice run, they were run at minutes intervals on this “mickey mouse” stage that first meandered around the perimeter track in a clockwise direction, diving right through a ditch then hard left through a gate, then around the back of an embankment to join the bitumen circuit which was followed for half a lap. Towards the end, coming down the hill after the dogleg, cars beared left onto the grass between bunting and witches hats, rejoining the main straight to finish at the normal start/finish line. There was a stop control where you could turn right and meander back through the pits to the start or to head off onto the next transport. Today Oran Park is a housing estate!

There was a reasonable crowd in attendance and they hopefully got some entertainment because it was pretty much a waste of time for the crews. This was even more so when the timing seemed to be stuffed up and in the end, all penalties were deleted.

N3 -Federal Transport

260.7 km in 3h30m, First Car ETA 10:57 pm Friday, delayed to 12:00 midnight

The first car departed Oran Park at about 8.30 pm on the leisurely run down to Canberra through Goulburn (no bypass back then). It was a fine but cold night and would be near freezing in and around Canberra. Traffic was light and with adequate time allowed, no-one had reason to be pushing too hard. However, there was a considerable delay at the Canberra refuel at the BP Braddon where a huge crowd had gathered to see the late night passage of the cars. The start of the special stage was just west of the city on Cotter Road, at a location familiar to all those who had competed in or spectated on the Castrol Rallies. The first car started the Canberra Special Stage at almost exactly 12 midnight.

Jackson dropped a minute, Mizel 8 minutes, but all the other leaders were on time. In total about thirty cars were late on the transport, some very late obviously dealing with car problems. Fury in particular lost 16 minutes, about half their loss for the division. An additional three cars (Bryson, Bird, McTigue) skipped Canberra altogether, heading for Albury, no doubt much delayed, except for Bryson and Cable-Cumming who were doing a tour of the capital cities as a strange kind of honeymoon.

N4 – Canberra Special Stage

16.5 km in 12m First Car ETA 11:09 pm Friday, delayed to 12:12 am Saturday (Map)

Conditions in Greenhills Plantation were excellent with a bit of light rain and roads that were slippery without being treacherous. The special stage was almost a loop, starting and finishing at almost the same location on Cotter Road, running up the east side alongside Tuggeranong Parkway and returning through the maze of roads of the plantation. Towards the end it turned left before the famous yumping grid. There were a lot of spectators around the forest and many flashes as photographers caught the cars. Today the southern part of the stage has been subsumed by the new suburb of Coombs and the northern part is now the National Arboretum, so the stage is largely inaccessible.
Unsurprisingly, Greg Carr was the quickest by a considerable margin. Dunkerton was second quickest, conscious that his fourth place was potentially under threat from Carr, but in reality the scores were in such disarray that no-one could be really sure! Of the other leaders, Watson and Mizel were quite slow, as was Portman. This was Portman’s third last stage and with the battered Stanza almost literally held together by duct tape, the show at Canberra was just for the crowd and they then decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valour and headed directly to Mitta Mitta to contest the final two competitive stages. Had they decided to do the whole route they were concerned that a suspension failure might have resulted in a non-finish, but in any case they would have likely dropped back to about 10th. A total of 83 cars completed the special stage with all but 2 under 10 minutes. Certainly times started to extend as the field went through, perhaps as a result of the rain and the passage of cars making the surface rather slimy. Three cars picked up the end control from the wrong direction without doing the stage and two of them (Hayden and Moore) subsequently headed for Albury, the third (Walker), apparently out of late time, skipped to Buchan where the late time limit increased to 5 hours.

Fastest times:

Carr 0.28
Dunkerton 1.21
Fury 1.23
Brock 1.31
Mehta (Aaltonen) 1.34
Ferguson 1.58
Tholstrup 2.25 (?)
Johnson 2.38
Herrmann 2.43
Giddings 2.50
Nalder (Richards)2.51
Clarke 2.56
Rowney 3.06
Davis 3.13
Beveridge 3.16
Jackson 3.21
Glover 3.28
Faulkner, Hurrey 3.32
Miettunen 3.33
Garner 3.38
Barth 3.40
Stockley 3.44
Roberts, Kahler 3.48 (typo in results?)
Boaden 3.50
Goldsborough 3.63
Lahiff 3.54
Boys 3.56
Taylor 3.58
Lockhart 4.07
McCubbin 4.16
Foden 4.18
Neilson 4.23
Meehan 4.33
Sheridan 4.44
Loader, Murray 4.46
Portman 4.48

N5 – Victoria Transport

260.4 km in 3h02m, First Car ETA 2:11 am Saturday, delayed to 3:14 am

It was another long transport down through Cooma, Bombala and Delegate to just over the Victorian border at Delegate River. For the first 13 km crews meandered through the southern suburbs of Canberra before joining the Monaro Highway. The final 15 km was gravel but the time allowed was quite adequate.

Of the leaders, only Davis was 1 minute late. Further back there were plenty of crews late, perhaps as a result of car problems or just plain crew fatigue. For example, Meehan was almost an hour late. However many other crews had perhaps examined the remote loop into Victoria for which there was relatively little service access and relatively little chance of escape. As a consequence, about twenty crews (including Portman) that had visted the Canberra controls decided to then skip, either to Albury, or in a few cases to Mitta Mitta or Yackandandah to pickup up one or two extra stages. So in the end, 65 cars went to Delegate River.

N6 – Snowy Drops Trial Stage

81.9 km in 1h05m First Car ETA 3:16 am Saturday, delayed to 4:19 am (Map)

It was perhaps best that the leading crews did this stage in darkness as there are some fearsome drops off the edge of the twisting mountain road that crosses the Snowy River at McKillops Bridge. In fact the route instruction warned that “the penalty for a car leaving the road is up to 1000 ft and straight down!” The first part to Tubbut is reasonably open but then tightens as it clings to the side of the mountain descending to the Snowy and then climbing the other side. The last 10 km opens out into farmlands to the end at the junction with the Suggan Buggan Road (used in the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon). Conditions were excellent, damp but not treacherous so that dust was not a problem.

The Brock Commodore, first on the road, started the stage at 3.17 am. After them came Ferguson, Mehta, Dunkerton, Carr, Nalder, Loader, Herrmann, Barth, Davis, Watson and Jackson, then Roberts, Rowney and Clarke who would have gotten in front of Mizel. The stage was always going to be pretty competitive, but Carr, Mehta and Rowney were all on a mission to at least show that they could have won the event, with Mehta probably passing Ferguson, Carr passing Dunkerton, and Rowney passing Roberts, Jackson and Watson, while Jackson must have passed Watson.

The big loser was Davis who broke an axle in the 180B but as luck would have it, along came Giddings in the 200B and they had a spare in the boot! Davis changed it and continued, losing an hour. In such a remote location they would have surely failed to have finished the event if it were not for Giddings.

The results show 62 cars completing the stage with most times under 30 minutes late. The Falcons of McArthur and Carter, having gone to Delegate River, then cut and ran to Beechworth or Albury. All the times:

Carr clean
Mehta, Rowney 2
Brock, Dunkerton 4
Ferguson 5
Fury 6
Loader, Meehan 7
Hurrey 8
Nalder, Herrmann 9
Barth, Jackson, Darby 11
Faulkner 12
Watson, Taylor, Miettunen, Stockley 14
Ingerson, Moloney, Lance 15
Johnson, Cafe, Neilson 16
Murray, Finlay, Boys 17
Herdy, Turner 18
Lloyd, Clarke, Boaden, Spanbroek 19
Beveridge, Colless, Garner, Giddings 20
Myers, Gough 21
Lockhart, Birrell, Jones, Farmer, Penny 22
Kahler, Glover, Roggenkamp 24
McCubbin, Foden 25
Tholstrup 26
Potter, Roberts 27
O’Shanesy, Goldsborough 30
Heaton 31
O’Donnell 38
Bray 41
Mizel 51
Travis 1.01
Davis 1.10

N7 – Gelantipy Transport Stage

17.6 km in 14m First car ETA 3;30 am Saturday, delayed to 4:33 am

Most of this transport down to the start of the next trial stage was on gravel so there was not a lot of time to dawdle. The first car passed through Gelantipy at about 4.45 am.

A handful of crews were a few minutes late and some even a few minutes early.

N8 – Tulloch Ard Trial Stage

49.6 km in 38m First Car ETA 4:08 am Saturday, delayed to 5:11 am (Map)

The seemingly straightforward run along Tulloch Ard Road to the outskirts of Buchan was deceptively tricky in the wet with some very slippery spots and a quite steep descent at the end. Later cars would get to see it in daylight.
Carr was still flying and probably passed Ferguson on the road while Brock did quite a reasonable time taking another minute from Ferguson to consolidate their lead. Mehta was more constrained (perhaps he drove instead of Aaltonen?) and matched Brock’s time. The results show Loader losing 15 minutes but this cannot be correct as they maintained their road position in front of Herrmann who only lost 7 and would have been at most 4 or 5 minutes behind them on the road. Most times were under 15 minutes late, all were under 25 minutes late except for Heaton who short cut the stage and took a maximum 4 hour penalty for a wrong direction at the end.

Times:

Carr 1
Brock, Mehta 3
Ferguson, Dunkerton, Fury and Jackson 4, also Darby (doubtful)
Rowney, Goldsborough 6
Nalder, Herrmann, Hurrey, Meehan, Kahler, Gough 7
Myers, Faulkner, Stockley, Johnson, Murray, Birrell, Penny 8
Barth, Watson, Taylor, Miettunen, Boys, Boaden, Spanbroek, Colless, Garner, Lockhart, Glover, Potter 9
Giddings, Lance, Neilson, Roggenkamp, Tholstrup 10
Davis, Herdy, Farmer, O’Donnell 11
Finlay, Turner, Lloyd, Mizel 12
Foden, Clarke, Jones 13
Beveridge, Roberts 14
Loader (?), McCubbin, Ingerson, O’Shanesy 15
Travis 16
Moloney 17
Bray 18
Cafe 25

N9 – Buchan Transport Stage

18.0 km in 30m First Car ETA 4:38 am Saturday, delayed to 5:41 am

The first car snuck into the sleepy town of Buchan at about 5.30 am, just before dawn on Saturday morning. Nonetheless, there were quite a few locals milling around the refuel to see the cars pass through. There was again, no time to dawdle, with a further 13 km out to the start of the next trial stage at the Mount Johnson turnoff on Timbarra Road where the first car would have started just before 6 am.

It was indeed tight and more than 20 cars lost a few minutes including Jackson and Mizel (1 minute each) and Davis (3 minutes). Moloney had some problem, dropping 22 minutes while Jones aborted and cut to Omeo via Bruthen.
Brock would have had at least a 2 minute gap to Mehta, then 2 or 3 minutes to Carr, then Ferguson, perhaps 4 minutes to Dunkerton and about a 10 or 12 minute gap back to Nalder who was followed at 2 minute intervals by Loader and Herrmann. Rowney may have been next as he’d probably passed Barth on the previous stage.

N10 – Mount Elizabeth Trial Stage

44.1 km in 39m First Car ETA 5:17 am Saturday, delayed to 6:20 am (Map)

This trial stage across to the Omeo Highway at what is known locally as “Bark Sheds”, used roads that were familiar to many competitors having been used in Alpine and Akademos Rallies in the previous few years. From Timbarra Road the route was initially good quality but once onto Cutts Creek Road, the descent to the Timbarra River and the subsequent climb out the other side are very rocky and rough. The run over Mount Elizabeth was also in relatively poor condition and the roughness continued down Collins Road to the very end where it descends steeply to the crossing of the Tambo River right at the control point on the Omeo Highway.
Carr was still flying and would have passed Mehta who apparently slid off the road into a log. Dunkerton did a good time and must have passed Ferguson. Herrmann was keen to catch Loader in seventh outright, picking up 2 minutes on the Lancer, which also did a reasonable time passing the Nalder Celica who were going easy on the rough stuff. Based on the results as published in Sydney, Herrmann now believed that he had overtaken the Lancer but a ‘re-count’ after the event found that the Lancer’s score was out by 17 minutes. Gil Davis also did a fast time in the Datsun 180B, trying to make up for the time lost changing the broken axle on the McKillops Bridge stage.

Times:

Carr 3
Herrmann and Davis 4
Dunkerton 5
Brock, Fury, Loader, Jackson 6
Rowney, Kahler 8
Ferguson, Nalder 9
Mehta, Murray 10
Barth, Goldsborough, Watson, Beveridge 11
Cafe 12
Colless, Roberts 13
Meehan, Lockhart 14
Hurrey, Clarke 15
Finlay, Birrell, Potter 16
Giddings 17
McCubbin, Darby, O’Donnell 18
Lance, Glover, STockley, Garner 19
Spanbroek, Turner 20
Tholstrup 21
Herdy, O’Shanesy 22
Neislon 23
Miettunen, Roggenkamp, Bary 24
Mizel, Farmer, Boaden 25
Taylor 26
Gough, Lloyd, Ingerson 27
Foden 28
Penny, Heaton 29
Walker 31
Boys 33
Myers 46

N11 – Omeo Highway Transport

120.4 km in 1h40m First Car ETA 6:57 am Saturday, delayed to 8:00 am

It was just light for the leading cars who headed up the bitumen Omeo Highway through Swifts Creek, Portman’s home town, where a contingent of excited locals was awaiting his arrival, but sadly, he was not coming. Onwards up the bitumen to Omeo beyond which many an Alpine Rally have used the twisty unsealed Omeo Highway competitively through to Mitta Mitta (it is now fully sealed), but being daylight it was necessarily a transport section. Nonetheless the organisers had split the section at Glen Valley, perhaps expecting a heavy covering of snow on the section to Mitta Mitta which may well have made it a “competitive” transport!

The transport was fairly tight and quite a few cars lost time, mostly under 5 minutes. Davis, perhaps taking the time to check and re-check everything on the 180B, dropped 28 minutes, while both Myers and Tholstrup each dropped close to 2 hours. Tholstrup had broken a gearbox and had to wait for their service crew to reach them and subsequently limp into Albury in order to be classified as a finisher.

N12 – Snowline Transport

66.6 km in 1h10m First Car ETA 8:07 am Saturday, delayed to 9:10 am

This section of the Omeo Highway for about 60 km to Mitta Mitta could easily have been competitive but the time was set appropriately and whilst there was plenty of snow on the side of the road, there was none on the road. Nonetheless, perhaps fearing competitors would speed through sleepy Mitta Mitta, they broke the stage into two, placing an intermediate control just outside the town. This was designated Control N11A and the competitors continued on the remaining 7.4 km transport through Mitta Mitta and out Scrubby Creek Road to the start of the next trial stage.

The twisty Omeo Highway run nonetheless required drivers to press on a bit, and quite a few crews were a few minutes late, but a few were 15 to 20 minutes late. The revised transport through Mitta Mitta failed to achieve the desired effect as it was too tight with about 20 cars losing between 1 and 3 minutes including Brock and Ferguson (1 minute each) and Nalder (2 minutes). Portman rejoined here having come directly from Canberra and cheekily slotted in ahead of Dunkerton. Nalder needed to stop for fuel in Mitta Mitta and the Herrmann Porsche slotted ahead of them on the road. The 2 minutes lost by Nalder took their event total loss on transport stages to just 3 minutes, by far the lowest of any competitor. The first car (still Brock) would have started the trial stage at about 9.35 am.

N13 – Slippery Dip Trial Stage

30.5 km in 28m First Car ETA 8:35 am delayed to 9:38 am Thursday (Map)

The Trappers Gap Road runs partly across a ridgeline quite close to Mount Bogong, Victoria’s highest peak. Crews were treated to a wonderful view of the snow covered mountains as they negotiated this somewhat slippery road which has often been used in the Alpine Rally but usually in dry and dusty conditions. The final 7 km is a steep rocky descent which is so rough that the Alpine has normally transported over it.
Carr and Mehta were both still pushing as if to make a point, whereas Herrmann and Loader were now fighting over 7th place. All four of them cleaned. Having rejoined, Portman was tippy toeing so as to not break the Stanza, dropping 5, whereas most of the other leaders dropped 1, 2 or 3 minutes. Davis was struggling and was slow here and on the final special stage. A total of 63 cars are recorded as having completed the stage with all scores under 20 minutes. No time was recorded for Bolch.

Times:

Carr, Mehta, Herrmann, Loader clean
Brock, Dunkerton, Fury 1
Ferguson 2
Nalder, Barth, Rowney, Colless 3
Watson, Johnson, Lockhart, Stockley 4
Faulkner, Beveridge, Portman 5
Murray, Meehan, Birrell 6
Roberts 7
Clarke, Finlay, McCubbin, Hurrey, Giddings, Lance 8
Jackson, Glover, Minett, Miettunen, Potter, Darby 9
Gough, Richardson 10
Ingerson, Cafe, Farmer, Penny, Goldsborough, Foden 11
Neilson, Kahler, Boaden, Boys, Travis 12
Herdy 13
Lloyd, Roggenkamp, Mizel, Davis 14
Jones, Taylor 15
Walker, Sheridan 16
Turner 17
Bray 18
Nicholson, Heaton, O’Donnell 20

N14 – Keiwa Valley Transport

70.9 km in 53m First Car ETA 9:28 am Saturday delayed to 10:31 am

After heading out to the Kiewa Valley Highway at Tawonga it was a straightforward run up the bitumen to Dederang and then across to Yackandandah. The transport ended just out of town on Bells Flat Road where the final competitive stage of the event would start. The stage was not too tight but a number of cars still lost time, including Davis (12 minutes late). On the other hand, a number of cars managed to book in early!

The first car started the final special stage just before 11.00 am. The road order at the front was Brock, Carr, Mehta, Portman, Dunkerton, Ferguson, Loader, Herrmann, Nalder, Rowney, then probably Watson.

N15 – Beechworth Special Stage

30.3 km in 23m First Car ETA 9:51 am Saturday, delayed to 10:54 am (Map)

The meandering final stage through the Stanley pine plantation was reminiscent of many Alpine Rallies that had used these roads previously. The conditions were initially quite good, slippery without being treacherous, but it started to rain by about midday and the later cars would be faced with quite challenging conditions. The special stage ended almost in the back street of Beechworth having given spectators some viewing opportunities near Fletcher Dam and at the Mansions picnic area.

As the final stage of the event, some competitors just wanted to make a point, whereas Loader/Hill and Herrmann were quite close in outright scores and really did need to push. For most, getting to the finish was all that mattered and to push too hard and stumble at the final hurdle was just not something to contemplate. Nonetheless, having been driving competitively for two weeks meant that most were well and truly “dialled in” and could push a bit without serious risk. Aaltonen certainly did that, setting an impressive time, although Carr and Brock both also set great times. Gil Davis was slow again, perhaps because of car issues or perhaps just because they were now further back and on the wet and treacherous roads.

The results record 67 cars completing the stage and 2 cars shortcutting and taking 4 hour maximum pealties. Times:

Mehta (Aaltonen) 3.04
Carr 3.47
Brock 3.50
Fury 5.16
Ferguson 5.22
Nalder (Richards) 5.26
Herrmann 5.33
Loader (Hill?) 5.34
Dunkerton 5.50
Barth 6.29
Portman 7.20
Johnson 7.41
Bolch 7.48
Colless 8.30
Rowney 8.35
Giddings 9.06
Faulkner 9.46
Beveridge 10.16
Jackson 10.20
Watson 10.23
Lockhart 10.58
Boaden 11.12
Hurrey 11.29
McCubbin 12.23
Glover 12.25
Minett 12.36
Kahler 12.43
Finlay 13.08
Lance 13.17
Sheridan 13.17
Clarke 13.31
Meehan 13.37
Boys 13.43
Goldsborough 13.50
Murray 14.01
Miettunen 14.18
Richardson 14.28
Darby 14.39
Hall 14.46
Roberts 14.53
Roggenkamp 15.41
Farmer 16.13
Koch 16.16
Neilson 16.24
Lloyd 16.28
Penny 17.19
Turner 17.28
Gough 17.35
Travis 17.40
Ingerson 17.53
Foden 18.58
Potter 19.14
Herdy 19.29
Walker 20.00
Sparkes 20.27
Mizel 20.38
Rayner 21.11
Cafe 21.15
Stockley 23.22
Birrell 24.49
Nicholson 25.43
Davis 26.20
Heaton 29.18
Taylor 33.18
Jones 40.00
O’Donnell 40.18
Lunney 46.04

N16 – Relax Transport

48.9 km in 49m First Car ETA 10:40 am Saturday delayed to 11:43 am

It was an easy run up to Albury where cars were impounded at the showgrounds for the final time. All the leaders made it on time although a few cars further back in the field were late. By the time the first car arrived soon after midday it was raining heavily and no-one wanted to hang around too long. The post-mortems and the partying quickly moved to the Travelodge!

Albury to Melbourne

The cars started departing the Albury Showgrounds at minute intervals from 7 am on Sunday morning for the transport down to Melbourne. Whilst this was all “ceremonial”, it had to be completed and vehicles had to be roadworthy, as police were out and about in force. This must have been just a little bit of a challenge for Portman’s Stanza which looked ready to go to the wreckers.

N17 – Retrospect Transport

310.7 km in 4h40m First Car Depart Albury 7.00 am Sunday, Hold at BP Aberfeldie at Essendon, Arrive Melbourne Showground 12.00 midday

Cars made their way to BP Aberfeldie in Buckley Street, Essendon where they were assembled for a convoy to the Melbourne Showgrounds, arriving at 12 midday Sunday August 19th. There was a huge crowd. The thirteen cars that had visited all controls were paraded into the arena in reverse sequence, and subsequently after the three winning Commodores had circled in convoy, the remaining finishers were allowed to enter. As Bill Tuckey put it in An old dog for a hard road, You felt like crying out: “But you don’t understand! You don’t know what it was like!”

Division Results

Full final results are shown here. Results on the division are shown below. 54 cars completed the division without missing a control although Heaton apparently did not complete the Tulloch Ard trial stage (N8). The summation of scores on Division N were all incorrect in part because the Oran Park times were still included.

Carr/Morrow/Gocentas (Cortina) 8.15
Mehta/Aaltonen/Lake (Commodore) 18.38
Brock/Philip/Richards(Commodore) 20.21
Dunkerton/McKay/Jones (Volvo 244) 21.11
Herrmann/Rainsford (Porsche 911) 28.16
Ferguson/Bell/Boddy (Commodore) 28.20
Rowney/Wilson/Tyson (Datsun 180B) 30.41
Nalder/Richards/Boyd (Celica) 38.17
Loader/Hill/Neale (Lancer) 38.20
Faulkner/de Vaus/Bateson (Peugeot 504) 39.18
Fury/Bonhomme/Suffern (Cortina) 39.39
Johnson/Vanderbyl (Volvo 242) 40.19
Barth/Kushmaul (Porsche 924) 44.09
Jackson/West/Jackson (Commodore) 45.41
Watson/Harrowfield (Peugeot 504 Diesel) 54.22
Colless/Johnston/McCoy (Datsun 1600) 58.34
Lockhart/Dunstan/Finlayson (Commodore) 1.04.05
Beveridge/Heaney/Jarman (Volvo 244) 1.04.32
Giddings/Jones/Seaman (Datsun 200B) 1.08.56
Hurrey/Geddes (Celica) 1.14.01
Lance/Craft/Robinson (Commodore) 1.14.11
Clarke/Davis/Burge (Datsun 180B) 1.15.27
Goldsborough/Flanagan/Ground (Commodore) 1.15.43
Roberts/Waterson/Carrol (Commodore) 1.19.41
Stockley/O’Neill (Porsche 911E) 1.22.06
Finlay/Sullivan/McLeod (Commodore) 1.22.19
McCubbin/Kelly/Guyatt (Monaro GTS) 1.22.39
Murray/D’Albora/Murray (Commodore) 1.27.47
Boaden/Pritchard/Atkin (Mazda RX4) 1.34.02
Glover/Burke/Hather (VW) 1.36.53
Darby/Clark/Stewart (HR Holden) 1.38.11
Taylor/Hunt (Rover 3500) 1.41.16
Penny/Kennard/Brown (LH Torana) 1.43.39
Neilson/Stewart/Tyre (HQ Holden) 1.45.47
Lloyd/Crockenberg/Dick (Colt) 1.49.27
Potter/Bain (Mazda RX3) 1.58.19
Miettunen/Morgan/Suominen (Volvo 244) 2.02.51
Gough/Hutton/Bishop (LJ Torana) 2.04.58
Herdy/O’Kane/Gramenz (Peugeot 504) 2.08.59
Farmer/Farmer/Fraser (Leyland P76) 2.10.35
Meehan/Gifford/Gardiner (Monaro GTS) 2.15.10
Turner/Donohue/Sparrow (Leyland P76) 2.18.41
Mizel/Hall/Fricker/Mortimer (Chevy Blazer) 2.28.52
Kahler/Partridge/Simeon (Mazda RX4) 2.35.31
Boys/Vonthien (Ford F100) 2.43.39
McDiarmid/Phegan/Travis (Datsun 180B SSS) 2.47.56
Roggenkamp/Adair/Eakin (Escort) 2.50.50
Davis/Eather/Toner (Datsun 180B) 2.52.33
Birrell/Smith/Nixon (Renault 16TS) 2.57.10
Ingerson/Wilson/MacCulloch (Peugeot 404) 2.59.21
Foden/Baker/Young (Leyland P76) 3.02.16
O’Donnell/Geissler/Gibson (LX Torana) 3.51.43
Cafe/Gurney/Dawson (Mazda RX4) 4.14.23 (Results show more than an hour less)
Heaton/Shepherd/Mann (HJ Holden Panel Van) 6.31.00 (missed stage N8)

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