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1966 to 1980 a HISTORY of the EVENTS

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1966 to 1980 a HISTORY of the EVENTS 1966 to 1980 Conducted by SPORTING CAR CLUB LIMITED A HISTORY OF THE EVENTS Compiled by Tom Snooks RACING CAR NEWS - “Trials in Australia in 1966 have been the biggest ever, with principal ‘works’ teams doing battle in almost every state. Culmination of this highly exciting branch of the Sport will be the International Southern Cross Rally in October. Artist David Atkinson has presented a scene we may expect to see somewhere along the route. Reprints are available at 10 cents per copy”. Foreword by Bob Watson By the mid 1960s competitive road events in Australia had transitioned from the adventurous pioneering Round Australia trials of the 1950s to more compact events, generally over roads closed to the public and with the emphasis on driver and car speed rather than navigation by maps. This change, driven by public safety and ease of organisation, ushered in the golden era of rallying in Australia. There were two International rallies run in Australia in the period from 1958 to 1980. They were distinctly different: the BP Rally of South Eastern Australia which ran from 1958 to 1973 was a navigation event run over rugged hard to find tracks and disused easements, and using maps of dubious accuracy. The BP was organised by the then Secretary General of CAMS (now Motorsport Australia) Donald Thomson with help from BP Motorsport Manager John Pryce and BP lubricants engineer Graham Hoinville. The BP rallies attracted factory entries from Ford, Holden, BMC, Volkswagen and Datsun. Thomson was a merciless director – he prayed for wet weather to make the event more difficult- and he had the philosophy that “a road is anything between two fencelines”. They were tough events, run over 3000kms, with a thirty six hour overnight stint from Thursday morning until Friday night that fully tested the concentration of both driver and navigator. Although it was not possible to win the BP without an excellent navigator, the winning drivers were generally the top ranked drivers of the era. The other International event, and the one we are more concerned with here was the Southern Cross Rally. The ‘Cross was inaugurated in 1966 when a number of International drivers were brought to Australia to run in the Bathurst enduro race, the Gallaher 500. Rauno Aaltonen and Timo Makinen, the original Flying Finns were contracted to drive Minis in the race as was Paddy Hopkirk. Aaltonen and Aussie co driver Bob Holden duly won the Bathurst race. This book by Tom Snooks documents the history of the Southern Cross Rally in a very thorough and entertaining manner. There is no one more qualified to write the story of the rally, as he was the Event Director during the great era of Total Oil sponsorship which lifted the event to a truly world class level. Tom has combined official rally entry lists and results with accounts of the event taken from contemporary motoring magazines. The result is a fascinating read, and facts presented may settle a few questions among those who competed. I even found out about things that I had done during the rallies that I was not aware of or had totally forgotten! The challenge presented by the classic Southern Cross rallies will never be repeated. Fields of top International competitors, stages up to 240 kms long over superb forest roads, variable weather that on occasions reduced the number of finishers to less than ten. The Cross was always a formidable test of driver, co-driver and car – and you could add service crews too! Tom Snooks, you have captured the essence of one of Australia’s greatest rallies with this book, and in doing so you have helped us all celebrate what was indeed the Golden Era of rallying in Australia. Well done. Bob Watson 1 1966 to 1980 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 3 A SHORT HISTORY .......................................................................................................................................... 4 HONOR ROLL ............................................................................................................................................... 12 THE WINNING DRIVERS ............................................................................................................................... 13 1966 ............................................................................................................................................................. 14 1967 ............................................................................................................................................................. 27 1968 ............................................................................................................................................................. 38 1969 ............................................................................................................................................................. 49 1970 ............................................................................................................................................................. 62 1971 ............................................................................................................................................................. 75 1972 ............................................................................................................................................................. 86 1973 ............................................................................................................................................................. 99 1974 ........................................................................................................................................................... 112 1975 ........................................................................................................................................................... 125 1976 ........................................................................................................................................................... 142 1977 ........................................................................................................................................................... 159 1978 ........................................................................................................................................................... 177 1979 ........................................................................................................................................................... 190 1980 ........................................................................................................................................................... 202 TOM SNOOKS PROFILE .............................................................................................................................. 214 2 1966 to 1980 HISTORY INTRODUCTION Obviously 50 to 35 years after the Southern Cross International Rally, and having been involved with many events since those years, my memory could not possibly recall a great deal of the activity that took place. So, reference has been made mainly to the two excellent ‘encyclopaedias’ of the era – RACING CAR NEWS (1966 to 1980 – and I am indebted to Glen McAliece for the loan over an extended period of time of his collection of RCN) and AUSTRALIAN MOTOR RACING YEAR (1972 to 1980). Without these journals my compilation of the event’s history would not have been possible, so I acknowledge that the information contained in this history, in the main, comes from these publications. Cartoons by Other material has come from papers (regulations, road books, etc) and books/magazines collected by myself over the years, from information and photographs provided by enthusiasts and, of course, Google! I take full responsibility for the information listed and in particular any issues or photographs listed in a year that in fact happened in another year (after all this time things do blur into one another!). At times data varied between the two publications and I have selected, after researching as best as I could, what I considered to be the more accurate. I apologise for any errors made by me and will be most pleased to hear from anyone seeking to correct any issue. I would also like to hear from anyone offering any information, or photographs (particularly 1966 to 1972 there is a scarcity of data), or can assist with completing the entry lists. In preparing this history it has been a wonderful memory-trip, coming across names of people who shared a like- soul involvement with the sport, and it has made me greatly appreciate the sheer size of the event having been so closely involved through those wonderful years with the Southern Cross International Rally – as a competitor in 1968 (travelling from Western Australia), and after my moving from the West to live in Sydney in 1970, on the administrative side of the event from then until 1977, after which I transferred all my time to further develop the TOTAL OIL Economy Run. That the event was so successful is principally due to those who contributed to its administration and course setting, and the many hundreds of volunteers who actually ran the event on the road. And of course, the event could only have happened because of the competitors and service crews, of whom many became dedicated to it. For those who do not get a mention and feel they should have, I apologise. I have tried to
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