The North Eastern was held on 29 March.
VRC Round 2 – 1980 NECC North Eastern Rally
After their rollover in the first VRC round, the Brown brothers (Chris & Simon) fought back strongly with an excellent victory in round two, the North Eastern Rally.
A total of 43 entries were received for this event, which started and finished from the North East Car Club rooms at Tarrawingee. The event was capably directed by Ken Moore.
The rally ran in hot and dusty conditions down through the Stanley Plantation, then into Mt Pilot, with a service break at Beechworth. On the third stage, reigning champions and series leaders, Warwick Smith and Paul Paterson, hit a bank and retired. Smith said he was unsighted with a dirty windscreen after popping out into sunlight.
At the end of the first Division, Chris and Simon Brown had a slender lead of eight seconds from David Adams / Chris Randell in a Lancer with Shane Blandford and Ron Harper in a Datsun 1600 a further 37 seconds back.
The second division was virtually a return run through Mt Pilot and Stanley, then finally back to the finish at Tarrawingee .
With their dust-free and trouble-free run at the front of the field, the Browns extended their lead to ultimately win the rally by just over four minutes.
The minor place getters had swapped position during the second division, with Blandford / Harper claiming second place by just over a minute from Adams / Randell, closely followed by Gil Davis and Gordon Paul ( 180B ) and Chris Wall / Lloyd Minifie in a Datsun 1600.