Rally Queensland was held on July 26-28.
Australian Rally Championship Round 6
Controversy mired the final ARC round for 1991, overshadowing the win by Murray Coote and Coral Taylor in the Mazda 323, their third win for the year. Neal Bates and Mike Taylor needed to place first or second to win the ARC, and they achieved the latter. But this required Herridge and Vanderbyl to score no points. The scores initially placed them third, giving them the championship.
But there had been dramas at the end control of Day 2 in Brisbane where it seems Herridge required to do some work on the Subaru’s suspension. An official had also told them they had to repair the exhaust which was broken and too noisy. They did both taking a fair bit of time. The regulations stated words to the effect that extra time beyond normal late time limit was allowed at division end without exclusion and Herridge used this time. However, the organisers then applied a 60 minute penalty for a missed control. Immediately after the event, Herridge lodged a protest and the Stewards ruled that the penalty be withdrawn on the basis that the said official was not present to provide testimony of what actually happened. Herridge and Vanderbyl we reinstated to third place and the ARC victory. Post event, Bates appealed and the subsequent appeal was upheld. The 60 minute penalty was reinstated, Herridge dropped out of the points and Bates and Taylor were declared champions.
But Herridge was not done, and lodged an appeal with the Australian Motor Sports Appeal Court. That appeal hearing was conducted in Melbourne in December and went through into the wee small hours. At the appeal, in addition to the issue of the exhaust repair and the 60 minutes penalty, Herridge raised questions about the Bates entry, claiming that the Bates car was really owned by Toyota but had been entered as a private entry. The appeal was adjourned without a decision. The final hearing was not held until September 1982, 13 months after the event in question. And Herridge won the appeal and the 60 minute penalty was removed, giving them the title. The question of the ownership of The Celica was seemingly never resolved.
