1980 Castrol International Rally

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The Castrol International Rally, organised by the Southern Districts Motor Sports Association, was conducted on March 22-23 in the forests around Canberra.

Carr by 40 split seconds!

The 1980 Castrol really came of age with the arrival of Swedish star, Ari Vatanen, with his regular co-driver, Dave Richards. Vatanen would go on to win the WRC the following year. Vatanen was part of a two car New Zealand team of RS1800s, the second driven by New Zealander Jim Donald. But with five Castrol wins to his name, local star Greg Carr could never be discounted, as well as his ever reliable teammate, Colin Bond, both also in Escort RS1800s. And of course nearly all of Australia’s top rally drivers were there including Hugh Bell, Wayne Bell, Murray Coote, Ed Mulligan, Bob Watson and Barry Ferguson. A further wildcard entry was Peter Brock, fresh from winning the 1970 Repco Reliability Trial, and expected to be spectacular, if not quick, in a Commodore.

Vatanen was quick out of the blocks and led on the first division, just ahead of Bond, whose circuit racing experience was showing on the tarmac stages. Carr was third, but only 17 seconds adrift. Carr moved up to second ahead of Bond on the night stages, but he was unable to match Vatanen who finished the second division 1 minute and 43 seconds ahead of Carr. Vatanen looked like cruising to a comfortable victory having extended his lead to almost three minutes on Sunday morning. But as so often happened with the impetuous Vatanen, he rolled the Escort on SS29 and took a maximum time, putting him back into second 39 seconds behind Carr. He fitted soft A2 tyres in an attempt to retake the lead but a couple of punctures prevented him from taking full advantage. In the end Carr won by 40 seconds, his sixth (and final) Castrol Rally win.

Results and entry list

NOTE: This was the first year that the Castrol Rally used full elapsed timing, i.e. no target times.

Place	Driver	Co-Driver	Car	Time
1	Greg Carr	Fred Gocentas	Ford Escort RS 1800	3:58:17
2	Ari Vatanen	David Richards	Ford Escort RS 1800	3:58:57
3	Colin Bond	John Dawson-Damer	Ford Escort RS 1800	4:05:05
4	Hugh Bell	Damian O’Reilly	Datsun 1600	4:18:23
5	Peter Brock	Noel Richards	Holden Commodore	4:21:00
6	Chris Gabriel	Yvette Polonyi	Mitsubishi Galant	4:23:06
7	Wayne Bell	David Boddy	Holden Gemini Turbo	4:25:01
8	Jim Donald	Kevin Lancaster	Ford Escort RS 1800 MKII	4:28:22
9	Murray Coote	Brian Marsden	Ford Escort RS 2000	4:29:13
10	Mike Bell	Richard Davis	Ford Escort RS 2000	4:30:35
11	Barry Ferguson	Steve Owers	Holden Gemini Turbo	4:30:52
12	David House	Ron Page	Datsun 1600	4:31:28
13	Gordon Leven	Robert Wilson	Datsun 510 SSS	4:33:03
14	Clive Slater	Ann Heaney	Ford Escort RS 2000	4:33:51
15	Steve Stewart	Bob Vince	Holden Torana XU1	4:33:53
16	John Fraser	Ewan Higgins	Mitsubishi Lancer	4:34:58
17	Trevor Vince	Graeme Pigram	Datsun H510	4:37:21
18	Graeme Whatman	James Whatman	Mitsubishi Galant	4:37:35
19	Barrie Smith	Jan Mosher	Datsun 1600	4:37:55
20	Gary Beven	Alister Mearnes	Datsun 1600	4:39:01
21	Dale Loader	Brian Cox	Mitsubishi Lancer	4:40:28
22	Barry Lowe	Kevin Attwood	Datsun	4:40:43
23	Paul Cole	Russ Whitty	Datsun 1600	4:41:25
24	Gary Meehan	Greg Gifford	Toyota Celica	4:41:40
25	Bob Watson	Wayne Gregson	Peugeot 504 Ti	4:42:38
26	John Craydon	John Sullivan	Datsun	4:43:23
27	Peter Nelson	Graham Moule	Datsun 1600	4:44:53
28	Doug Stewart	Col Parry	Holden Commodore	4:48:03
29	Neil Weston	Peter Berriman	Datsun 1600	4:48:35
30	Keith Byrn	Ken Smith	Mitsubishi Lancer	4:49:05
31	Gary Mecak	Pat Taylor	Mazda	4:51:12
32	Bruce Hodgson	Mike Mitchell	Ford Falcon XA	4:55:44
33	John Berne	David Peiti	Ford Escort	5:00:43

Full entry list

Route

The event followed the same format as the previous year with three dvisions – Saturday daylight, Saturday night and Sunday daylight. The difference was the inclusion of several tarmac stages on Saturday afternoon in some new housing estates in Gowrie and Fadden

1980 Castrol International Rally

Carr by 40 split seconds!

Results and entry list

Route

Other event documents