1984 CAMS AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP THE EVENTS The 1984 CAMS Australian Rally Championship: 1 Canon Zodiac Rally Victoria Officer/Hobson 2 Mid-State Television Rally New South Wales Bathurst Light Car Club Carr/Gocentas 3 James Hardie National Rally Queensland Brisbane Sporting Car Club Carr/Gocentas 4 Sunday Times Safari West Australia West Australian Car Club Nicoli/Macneall 5 Dunlop 2GO Rally New South Wales Deepwater Sporting Car Club Hill/Bonser 6 Alpine Rally Victoria Light Car Club of Australia Officer/Hobson FINAL POINTS 1 David Officer Vic 98 1 Kate Hobson (Officer*) Vic 98 2 Ed Mulligan NSW 90 2 Geoff Jones NSW 90 3 Greg Carr ACT 68 3 Fred Gocentas ACT 68 4 Murray Coote Qld 58 4 Iain Stewart Qld 58 5 Jim Middleton NSW 50 5 Phil Bonser NSW 42 6 Ian Hill NSW 42 6 Gary Marshall NSW 35 7 Terry Kuss SA 34 7 Bob Carpenter NSW 32 8 Rob Worboys NSW 32 8 Meg David Qld 32 9 Caroline NSW 21 9 Mick Harker ACT 29 O’Shannessy 10 Peter Clark ACT 29 =10 Bob Darrant SA 24 =10 Ross Runnalls Vic 24 =10 Peter Macneal WA 24 * Dinta and Kate were married in May 1984 Interstate Challenge Shield Points scored by the best three placed drivers from each state in each championship round (ACT included in NSW) NSW 248 Vic 175 Qld 84 WA 70 SA 41 Tas - Manufacturers Award Not awarded. 1984 Australian Rally Champions – David Officer, Kate Hobson and Mitsubishi Galant 132 SUMMARY The 17th Australian Rally Championship was held over six events across Australia, the season consisting of one event each for Queensland and West Australia and two each for New South Wales and Victoria. It was an unusual season, with very little manufacturer backing and a mix of classes with the introduction of the Production Rally Car (PRC) Category. Both PRC and Group G were awarded equal points towards the championship, with bonus points for the first four outright placings. This was to cause a split in the sport which became a huge rift as the season progressed, as the various factions hardened their attitudes to the unusual scoring method. So it was a strange and difficult year, which again saw rallying wandering in the motor sport wilderness, but there were signs of revival of manufacturer interest, with Subaru standing on the sidelines during the latter part of the year looking to decide to enter a fleet to four-wheel drive cars. At the start of the year the obvious title contenders were Greg Carr, Geoff Portman and David Officer in the Group G category, while Ed Mulligan decided to try the PRC ‘back door’ to victory. In the end only Officer and Mulligan stayed within their original plans as both Carr and Portman made a foray into PRC during the series. 1984 may have been Officers year but Greg Carr was the fastest driver in the ‘time bomb’ – as the Fiat 131 Abarth was referred to – managing to end the Carr/Fred Gocentas prpospects of winning the series with a series of unpredictable, and sometimes unexplained, mechanical failures, quite unlike their 1983 experience. Portman had a difficult year with the Nissan Bluebird, the choice of vehicle being a poor one; Ian Hill/Phil Bonser did well with the ex-works Ford Escort (picking up a win) and Murray Coote/Iain Stewart picked up top placings with their radical and well-prepared Datsun 1200. Ross Dunkerton appeared twice in his Datsun 1600 and evergreen Clive Slater continued his cross-country forays from Perth, but without any success, although he picked up a very fine second in his home championship event. George Fury made a single appearance in the Alpine Rally and Hugh Bell, after a fine 1983, slipped back, finishing in the top ten on only one occasion. David Officer, with Kate Hobson (later Officer) took off the first event at Bairnsdale in Victoria after both Portman and Carr fell by the wayside; Ed Mulligan’s plan via the PRC route immediately paid off when he took maximum PRC points to equal Officer, but who was just ahead because of the extra bonus points. Then at Bathurst, Carr/Fred Gocentas took off the win from Hill and Portman, with Mulligan again leading PRC. Officer slid off the road into retirement. Round three was in Queensland where Carr again won, ahead of Officer and Coote, with Mulligan continuing his winning streak in PRC. Then for the Perth round Carr swapped to the Jim Middleton’s PRC Commodore in an effort to check Mulligan and was successful. The Dunlop-2GO, again replacing the long standing Bega Valley Rally, and run for the first time as a four day event, saw Ian Hill/Phil Bonser take the win, ahead of Officer and Dunkerton. Japanese driver Hotta and Wayne Bell (driving the second Fiat to run interference in Mulligan’s point-scoring) checked Mulligan into third PRC place. This all meant that the title battle went down to the running of the Alpine Rally, where Officer took off the event and the championship. Mulligan needed to win PRC to take the championship but came second to Jim Middleton/Garry Marshall. Although the scoring for Group G and PRC caused controversy at least it made the season interesting. ROUND ONE: CANON ZODIAC RALLY – Victoria 1 David Officer and Kate Hobson (Mitsubishi Galant) finally cemented their place at the top rank of Australian rallying with a comfortable win in the opening round, being the first title-round victory for the pair. They won by five minutes from Chris Brown/Noel Richards (Datsun 180B SSS) while Peter Clark/Mick Harker (Datsun Stanza) were another four minutes behind in third place. The championship was a six-round series, in which crews could count their best five results. Only 31 entries started this first round, which was a new event to the series and was the first to apply the new CAMS ruling of equal status between the Group G and the new Production Rally Car (PRC) category but this was poorly supported with only three starters – Ed Mulligan (Mazda RX7), Caroline O’Shannessy (Fiat 131 Superbrava) and Terry Kuss (Mitsubishi Starion). Based at Bairnsdale in Gippsland Greg Carr/Fred Gocentas (Fiat 131 Abarth) set off in determined fashion and were fastest on three of the first four stages, with Geoff Portman/Ross Runnalls (Nissan Bluebird) right with them as was Brian Smith/Peter Mignot (Mitsubishi Galant), who was soon to be the first retirement, with gearbox troubles. As the rally moved into the Bruthen area Officer took on the role of ‘best of the rest’, with John Atkinson/Stephen Robertson (Datsun Stanza) also starting well, just ahead of Chris Brown and Peter Clark. At the first break back in Bairnsdale, Carr led Portman by just seven seconds but he opened the gap early in the second division, assisted by Portman hitting a tree heavily with the rear end of the Bluebird. A spate of retirements was climaxed by the news that Carr/Gocentas were out when they failed to start special stage 19. The fault was traced to the ignition pack but by the time the service crew were summoned and they arrived and corrected the problem the late time was reached and the leaders were out. 133 David and Kate Hobson Portman moved to the lead with Officer putting up a strong challenge and clipped his lead to seven seconds. Brown moved into third, although four minutes behind, ahead of John Macara (Dazda), Peter Clark, Murray Coote/Iain Smith (Datsun 120Y) and John Atkinson, who had several time-consuming excursions off the road. Cars were impounded overnight and this proved to be Macara’s undoing for his service crew did not have enough time to change a damaged A-arm before the Sunday morning re-start. Mulligan was dominating Group A with Kuss suffering a variety of minor niggles and O’Shannessy unable to consistently match the experienced Mulligan’s pace. Portman set off at the head of the field but soon was out with engine failure with the Bluebird while fending off Officer’s challenge. Atkinson could not haul in Clarke, let alone Officer, and once Portman was out it was a matter of what would be his winning margin as no-one could challenge Officer, and Brown was content to pick up second place, At the end it was Officer more than five minutes ahead of Brown, then nearly three minutes to Clarke, two minutes to Atkinson and Coote who were equal fourth, and sixth went to Phil Horan/Adrian Ward (Datsun Stanza) a further eight minutes away. Mulligan won Group A from O’Shannessy and then Kuss. Group G 1 David Officer Kate Hobson Mitsubishi Galant 4:34:14 2 Chris Brown Noel Richards Datsun 180B SSS 4:39:49 3 Peter Clarke Mick Harker Datsun Stanza 4:42:00 =4 John Atkinson Stephen Robertson Datsun Stanza 4:44:14 =4 Murray Coote Iain Stewart Datsun 120Y 4:44:14 6 Phil Horan Adrian Ward Datsun Stanza 4:52:16 7 Jack Wightman Jon Thomson Datsun 1600 4:54:43 8 John Berne Bruce Fullerton Ford Escort RS 1800 4:55:25 9 Jim Kennedy Jim Davis Mazda 626 4:56:40 10 Hugh Bell Steve Ellis Datsun 1600 ‘Dazda’ 5:00:37 Group A 1 Ed Mulligan Geoff Jones Mazda RX7 5:08:55 2 Caroline O’Shannessy Meg David Fiat 131 Superbrava 5:19:40 3 Terry Kuss Bob Durrant Mitsubishi Starion 5:38:40 134 ROUND TWO: MID-STATE TELEVISION RALLY – New South Wales 1 55 crews fronted the Mid-state Television Rally, based at Bathurst.