The Lombard London-Sydney Marathon was organised Nick Brittan through his company, Trans World Events. It was conducted ostensibly to celebrate the 25 year anniversary of the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon and was restricted to pre-1970 cars. The event attracted over a hundred entries and included 8 of the original cars and 25 original competitors. It started in London on April 17 and finished at the Sydney Opera House on May 16.
Unlike the 1968 event, this Marathon was a special stage event, but nevertheless sought to follow much of the original route. However, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan were not accessible so the event airlifted the field from Turkey to India and then from India to Perth. Two Antonov An-124 cargo planes were used which required the field to be limited to 106 cars.
The route through Europe was fairly leisurely with crews taking 11 days to reach Ankara in Turkey. Then there were 7 days in India high temperatures making conditions very challenging. There had been 19 special stages totalling only 300 km before the airlift to Australia. Furthermore, all those stages had predominantly been on tarmac. Everyone knew that the real competition, as in 1968, was to be in Australia.
The 1968 3 day dash across Australia was replaced with an 8 day meander that included 22 daylight special stages totalling about 1000 km and overnight stops in Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Eucla, Port Augusta, Broken Hill, Wangaratta and Canberra. The Road Director of the Australian segment was Bob Watson.
The event was won by Francis Tuthill and Anthony Showell in a Porsche 911. Australian Ian Vaughan, who placed third in the 1968 event, came second in the original Falcon, with co-driver Barry Lake.
Another Australian was Bruce Hodgson, who placed sixth in 1968 but came eighth this time in a similar Falcon, together with co-driver Ronald Lawton.
Locals Steve Ashton and Ro Nixon finished tenth in their Datsun 1600, but would have finished as high as third but for a roll in Glass Gorge in the Flinders Ranges.
Likewise Bendigo crew Lawrie Beacham and Jim Rosenow were 3rd O/R in Wangaratta in their GT Falcon. The next morning, with just 5 stages to go, a rear wheel bearing came loose, causing them to lose considerable time.
