1980 CAMS AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP THE EVENTS The 1980 CAMS Australian Rally Championship: 1 Rally of the West West Australia West Australia Car Club Fury/Suffern 2 Lutwych Shopping Centre Rally Queensland Brisbane Sporting Car Club Fury/Suffern 3 Akademos Rally Victoria Melbourne University Car Club Dunkerton/Beaumont 4 Bega Valley Rally New South Wales Australian Sporting Car Club Fury/Suffern 5 Donlee Rally South Australia Barrier Sporting Car Club Portman/Runnalls FINAL POINTS 1 George Fury Vic 31 1 Monty Suffern Vic 31 2 Colin Bond NSW 27 2 John Dawson-Damer NSW 27 3 Ross Dunkerton WA 17 3 Jeff Beaumont Tas 17 4 Geoff Portman Vic 12 4 Ross Runnalls Vic 12 5 Greg Carr ACT 10 5 Fred Gocentas ACT 10 6 Barry Ferguson NSW 5 6 Steve Owers NSW 5 7 Clive Slater WA 4 7 Barbara Stubbs WA 4 8 Tony Masling NSW 3 8 Brian Hope NSW 3 9 Barry Burns SA 3 9 David Milne SA 3 Manufacturers Award Not awarded. 1980 Australian Rally Champions – George Fury, Monty Suffern and Datsun Stanza 103 SUMMARY Continuing their almost complete domination of major Australian rallies in the second half of the seventies the Total Oil Datsun Team convincingly won the 1980 Australian Rally Championship with George Fury, Monty Suffern and Datsun Stanza. It was the second championship for Fury and Suffern but more satisfying as they shared the title with teammates Ross Dunkerton and Jeff Beaumont in 1977. The team won all five championship events – three to Fury, one each to Dunkerton and Geoff Portman/Ross Runnalls (Stanza). The title was the fifth in six years by Datsun (soon to be Nissan) and in that time it also won the Southern Cross International Rally in successive years, 1977 to 1980. The 1980 series followed the by now familiar format with one round in each of the mainland states. The opening round was in Queensland, followed by West Australia, then New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia (at Broken Hill). As had been the case since 1977 the chief protagonists for the 1980 series were the Datsun (now Nissan) and Ford works teams. The other factory backed team, Holden, never really sought to contest the series as a whole, and there was no one privateer who competed in all five rounds. Datsun made its usual professional attack on the series, with two litre twin cam Stanzas for George Fury/Monty Suffern and Ross Dunkerton/Jeff Beaumont. A third twin cam car was made available for Geoff Portman/Ross Runnalls to run in the last two rounds under separate sponsorship. Between them the Datsun drivers won all five rounds. By way of contrast the Ford team attack on the championship never really got running smoothly throughout the series. This was not a reflection on the team members but rather a result of the somewhat half-hearted support from Ford Australia, which was curtailing the sales of the Escort after 1980. The RS 1800 was used by Greg Carr/Fred Gocentas and Colin Bond/John Dawson-Damer. Carr had a disappointing year, with some form of mechanical problem in every round, usually when he was in the lead or close to it, and he only finished two events. On the other hand Bond was a model of consistency, finishing second in four events and fourth in the other event. Just how reliable Bond was can be seen by the fact that in four years with the Ford team he started in 16 championship events and finished every one of them – never worse that fifth. The Holden team with its two Geminis did not make a concerted attack on the series and only contested three of the five rounds. Amongst the privateers the ever present Clive Slater, with Barbara Stubbs, in his Toyota Corolla was the only competitor to tackle the whole series, contesting four rounds (from West Australia) but finished in only one (third in the first round). Tony Masling/Brian Hope ran their Datsun Stanza in three rounds, but mechanical problems kept the car out of points except for the opening round when he finished fourth. A number of other drivers attended two rounds. By the end of 1980 thought was being given to the fact that with only five rounds in the championship the results of all round must be taken into account for the final score and a poor result cannot be dropped, and there be the need to start in all rounds. This requirement, taken with the traditional points score system of 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the top six place- getters effectively ruled out any worthwhile participation in the championship by privateers, although many did compete in their ‘home state’ round (which is often a round of the state championship). Added to this was the steeply spiraling cost of rallying in events strung out across the nation and participating in the series was a deterrent to all but the wealthiest privateer. ROUND ONE: RALLY OF THE WEST – Western Australia Dust, dust, dust and more dust was the story of the Rally of the West. So much dust that the overall length of the event was shortened after the late runners had dropped hours behind schedule. Despite the terrible dusty conditions the competition was intense amongst the top runners. The Datsun Stanzas and Ford Escorts took up battle from where it had been left off at the end of the 1979 series when each marque won two events each. In the period 1977 to 1979 Ford had taken off seven events to Datsun’s six, but the championship titles has mostly gone Datsun’s way. Datsun entered George Fury/Monty Suffern and Ross Dunkerton/Jeff Beaumont (both in Stanzas) and Ford entered Colin Bond/John Dawson-Damer and Greg Carr/Fred Gocentas, in Escort RS 1800s. Tony Masling/Brian Hope were in a works replica Stanza were one of the few others from the Eastern States. Local top competitors included Clive Slater/Barbara Stubbs (Toyota Corolla), Danny Bignell/Rod van der Straaten (Datsun 120Y), Bob Nicoli/Peter Macneal (Datsun 1600) and Frank Johnson/Steve Vanderbyl (Mazda RX4). Since its inception in 1973 the West Australian round was conducted over two nights but this year it was changed to a prologue on the Friday and a single day of competition on Saturday afternoon and night. Daylight spectator stages were conducted near Perth and then the field moved to the competitive stages south of the city. 104 Bond, with the dust free run at the front of the field, was setting a scorching pace, and with Fury was making it a two horse race with the rest dropping back or out of contention with a variety of problems. Carr was amongst the first to strike problems when the distributor drive broke but after a 45 minute delay he continue only then to be out with a blown head gasket. He was soon joined by Bignell who hit a roadside obstruction. At the first break Bond was 18 seconds ahead of Fury, with Dunkerton some seven minutes away in third place, with his Stanza having timing chain adjuster problems, which had been encountered prior to the event. Nicoli was fourth, ahead of Slater and Masling, and filled the top sixth place. Tony Masling/ Brian Hope took their Datsun Stanza to fourth place After the break Fury started taking time off Bond on most stages and took the lead, whilst Dunkerton retired with the adjuster problem. Nicoli took over third place but he too shortly was out with clutch failure with his Datsun 1600. As a result Slater moved to third, Masling to fourth and Flood fifth with Johnson sixth. These positions were maintained until the next break when the organisers found that the tail-enders had yet to finish the first division because the field had become so strung out due to the heavy dust. As a result the organisers decided to end the event with a long transport to the finish. 1 George Fury Monty Suffern Datsun Stanza 271.22 2 Colin Bond John Dawson-Damer Ford Escort RS 1800 275.54 3 Clive Slater Barbara Stubbs Toyota Corolla 292.14 4 Tony Masling Brian Hope Datsun Stanza 307.47 5 Peter Flood ?. Robinson Holden Gemini 311.32 6 Frank Johnson Steve Vanderbyl Mazda RX4 321.55 105 ROUND TWO: LUTWYCH SHOPPING VILLAGE RALLY - Queensland In a stark difference to the very dusty conditions of the first round of the series this second round was run in heavy rain and mud, such that the event too was curtailed. After a long night battling the rain and mud George Fury/Monty Suffern (Datsun Stanza) scored a narrow win from Greg Carr/Fred Gocentas (Ford Escort RS 1800) – 236:54 to 238:19 - with Ross Dunkerton/Jeff Beaumont (Datsun Stanza) being in third with 239:36. The rally attracted a strong field. As well as Fury, Carr and Dunkerton, there were Colin Bond/John Dawson-Damer (Ford Escort RS 1800), Wayne Bell/Dave Boddy (Holden Gemini turbo), Barry Ferguson/Steve Owers (Holden Gemini twin cam), Geoff Portman/Ross Runnalls (Datsun Stanza), Tony Masling/Brian Hope (Datsun Stanza), Ed Mulligan/Chris Heaney (Ford Escort RS 1800) and Clive Slater/Barbara Stubbs (Toyota Corolla). Locals included Murray Coote/Brian Marsden (Ford Escort RS 2000), Rod Browning/Bruce Fullerton (Holden Gemini) and Ray Vandersee/Ian Young (Datsun 120Y). The event was run to its usual format over the Saturday afternoon and night, being based at Nambour, north of Brisbane. Overcast skies and drizzling rain greeted competitors as they headed north from the Brisbane start for the opening stages in the pine forests near Beerburrum, Carr took an immediate lead, followed by Fury and Bond, with Dunkerton dropping back as the result of an off-road excursion.