1978 CAMS AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP THE EVENTS The 1978 CAMS Australian Rally Championship: 1 Rally of the West West Australia West Australia Car Club Dunkerton/Beaumont 2 Lutwyche Shopping Village Rally Queensland Brisbane Sporting Car Club Carr/Gocentas 3 Donlee Rally New South Wales Barrier Sporting Car Club Fury/Suffern 4 Bega Valley Rally New South Wales Australian Sporting Car Club Carr/Gocentas 5 Endrust Forest Rally South Australia Walkerville All Car Club Bond/Dawson-Damer 6 Marchal Rally Victoria Bendigo Light Car Club Carr/Gocentas FINAL POINTS 1* Greg Carr ACT 27 1 John Dawson-Damer NSW 29 2 Ross Dunkerton WA 27 =2 Fred Gocentas ACT 27 3 Colin Bond NSW 25 =2 Jeff Beaumont Tas 27 4 George Fury Vic 18 4 Monty Suffern Vic 18 5 Clive Slater WA 11 5 Steve Halloran NSW 11 6 Geoff Portman Vic 9 6 Ross Runnalls Vic 9 7 Garry Harrowfield Vic 6 7 Roger Bonhomme Vic 6 =8 David Jones Vic 4 8 Ian Pearson Vic 4 =8 Dave Morrow NSW 4 9 Jerry Browne SA 3 10 Dean Rainsford SA 3 10 * Carr won the championship on a countback – Carr won three rounds to Dunkerton’s one Manufacturers Award Not awarded due to vehicle eligibility allowing extensive modifications 1978 Australian Rally Champions – Greg Carr, Fred Gocentas and Ford Escort RS 1800 86 SUMMARY After a year of intense competition Greg Carr, driving a Ford Escort RS 1800 and with Fred Gocentas again as navigator, emerged as the Australian Rally Champion driver for 1978. Carr and Dunkerton tied on 27 points but as Carr won three events to Dunkerton’s one he won on a countback. For the first time since the championship started in 1968 the Australian Rally Championship navigator was not in the same crew as the winning driver. On this occasion, John Dawson-Damer, navigator for third placed Colin Bond, emerged the champion by virtue of gaining points in the first round when he navigated for Dave Morrow when Bond wasn’t available. The battle throughout the year was essentially a Datsun versus Ford struggle with a number of other teams picking up championship points although unable to break through for an outright win. Both Ford and Datsun fielded two cars in each event. Ford had Carr/Gocentas in the RS 1800 and Colin Bond/John Dawson-Damer in a Ford Escort RS 2000. They won four of the six events. Carr was clearly the quickest driver throughout the year and always had his opponents in the position of having to chase him rather than the other way around. He was well positioned in one of the two events he didn’t finish when he suffered a badly damaged hand in an off-the-road excursion, the other being a mechanical problem with the car. Bond in the RS 2000 finished all five rounds he entered, winning one and third on three occasions. He could very well have won the Donlee Rally at Broken Hill but for getting bogged on a wrong road. While not as quick as Carr he clearly showed that he could still take many fastest stage times. Datsun fielded cars for Ross Dunkerton/Jeff Beaumont and George Fury/Monty Suffern. They started in the 710 and Fury took over the Stanza in the Bega Valley Rally and Dunkerton in the fifth round. In his first year as a full works driver for (now) Nissan Dunkerton won the opening round, with Fury second, and then finished second to Carr on three subsequent occasions. Fury finished fourth in the championship after winning one round and taking a second and a fourth on two other occasions. It was not Fury’s best year but one compensation was winning the Southern Cross International Rally. He looked a good bet at the start of the season to take consecutive championships but teething problems with the new Datsun Stanza later in the year saw him miss the series win. There were a number of drivers who contested more than one round of the series. Perth’s Clive Slater, teaming up with Steve Halloran from Sydney, ran his Toyota Corolla Sprinter on a shoestring and contested the first five rounds, and included an excellent second outright in the Donlee Rally. They both finished the series in fifth place. Geoff Portman/Ross Runnalls campaigned the Datsun 1600 in four rounds and finished sixth after a second and a fourth. A broken distributor in the final round kept them from gaining further points. Wayne Bell/George Shepheard contested five rounds in the Holden Dealer Team Gemini but they had five DNF’s. Garry Harrowfield, a former Victorian champion, ran in only two rounds to take seventh in the series overall in a Datsun 1600, with Roger Bonhomme. Fellow Victorians David Jones/Ian Pearson, again competed in a number of rounds in their Mitsubishi Lancer, while Adelaide driver, Dean Rainsford after a terrible year in 1977 with the Saab 99, reverted to the Porsche Carrera for 1978. All rounds contained some daylight stages and all were timed to the second, providing tough competition and most were very well run. ROUND ONE: RALLY OF THE WEST – Western Australia 49 crews entered the Rally of the West which started and finished in Perth but was largely based on the southwest town of Manjimup, and was conducted over two nights. Ford and Datsun entered two cars each – Greg Carr/Fred Gocentas in the Escort BDA, Dave Morrow (standing in for Colin Bond)/John Dawson-Damer in the RS 2000; George Fury/Monty Suffern and Ross Dunkerton, his first full works drive, and Jeff Beaumont, both in Datsun 710s. Wayne Bell/George Shepheard contested the event in the Holden Dealer Team Gemini; Dean Rainsford/Jeremy Browne reverted from the Saab 99 he used in 1977 to his Porsche Carrera, and Doug Stewart entered a Mitsubishi Lancer. Top locals included Danny Bignell (Datsun 120Y) and Clive Slater (Toyota Corolla Sprinter). Carr speared the Escort off the road on a tight left-hander and injured his thumb with the steering wheel and dropped 17 points in the process. Later he had the forearm put in plaster. At the end of the first night it was Dunkerton/Beaumont 19 who held a narrow lead over Fury/Suffern 25, with Stewart 26 closely behind in third spot, followed by Dave Morrow 27 and Clive Slater 33. Local driver John Macara 35 was in sixth place in his Datsun 1600, and Carr on 38, however, he didn’t start Day Two. 87 Clive Slater/Steve Halloran in the Toyota Corolla After several well attended daylight stages by spectators the rally moved south to the hardwood forests. Fury soon snatched the lead, and Bignall retired after leaving the road and was joined by Gil Davis who rolled his Mazda. Carr too went off the road in heavy dust and lost some 20 minutes winching back on to the road and whilst doing this he further damaged a bone in his right hand which forced his retirement at the end of the division. Close to the end of the night the Bell/Shepheard Gemini also retired with a blown motor. The second night’s rallying consisted of some long and rough stages up to 100 kilometres in length. Fury soon took over the lead from Dunkerton who then whittled away at the lead until they were tied halfway through the night. Slater had clawed his way to third while Stewart kept Morrow at bay. Then Dunkerton reverted to the lead and Fury lost the event by running off the road and having to winch back. Stewart dropped back with car problems after ‘’hitting something’’ and Morrow, despite some navigation problems, overtook Slater when the Corolla driver went off on the final stage for a few minutes. George Fury/Monty Suffern in the Datsun 710 SSS Making it four local crews in the top six were Frank Johnson/Bill Clark (Mazda RX4) and Brian Smallwood/Ross Thorp (Datsun 1600) took off fifth and sixth. 1 Ross Dunkerton Jeff Beaumont Datsun 710 74 pts 2 George Fury Monty Suffern Datsun 710 81 3 Dave Morrow George Shepheard Holden Gemini 107 4 Clive Slater Steve Halloran Toyota Corolla Sprinter 113 5 Frank Johnson Bill Clarke Mazda RX4 135 6 Brian Smallgood Glen Thorp Datsun 1600 144 7 Ron Daniels John Poyner Renault R12S 151 8 Doug Stewart Andy Van Kann Mitsubishi Lancer 181 88 ROUND TWO: LUTWYCHE SHOPPING VILLAGE RALLY - Queensland The Lutwyche Shopping Village Rally was run over three divisions in the coastal forests north of Brisbane. Two innovations included the use of timing to the second on all special stages (not just daylight spectator stages) and a prologue to determine the start order within driver groups. Quickest was Geoff Portman/Ross Runnalls (Datsun 1600), followed by Greg Carr /Fred Gocentas (Ford Escort RS 1800) and Queensland rally champion Ray Vandersee in his Holden Torana XU-1. The rallying began in earnest early Saturday afternoon and Carr and Colin Bond/John Dawson-Damer (RS 2000) soon shared quickest times over the daylight stages. Portman went into early retirement after leaving the road and was joined by Vandersee who had an oil filter element unscrew and spew out the engine oil. By the end of the first division Carr was a narrow leader from Ross Dunkerton/Jeff Beaumont (Datsun 710), Bond, George Fury/Monty Suffern (Datsun 710), Wayne Bell/George Shepheard (Holden Gemini) and Dean Rainsford/Jeremy Browne (Porsche Carrera), with Danny Bignell not far behind in his Datsun 240Z. The opening stage of the second division was to set the seal on the remainder of the event.