The Experts Trial was always noted as one of, if not the toughest rally in Victoria. It always presented most of the main challenges of rallying - navigation, difficult road conditions, a need for strategy and reliability etc. It was traditionally part of the Victorian Trials Championship and was part of the VRC until perhaps 1978, then ran as an independent event through until 2002. Originally organised by the Light Car Club, it was directed by folks such as Jim McAuliffe, Mike Mitchell, Stuart Lister, Jim Maude and Noel Kelly. I competed in six and course checked at least two, for Jim and Noel. I never won an Experts. A Jim Maude Memorial Experts was run by the Historic Rally Association in 2012.
My first exposure to the Experts was in 1972. Such an event was considered beyond my level of experience in my first year of competition but my brother and I went out servicing for friends Graham Horsfield and Garry Spence in the lime green Corolla. That edition, directed by Jim McAuliffe, was initially noted for being a "shortest mapped route" event and it was based primarily upon the 1:250,000 maps of the day. It was subsequently noted for the event where much of the field became stuck in deep snow near Lake Mountain. The shortest mapped route style of navigation was rarely used in Victoria at the time and was subsequently resurrected years later when Noel Kelly planned an Experts with that requirement, but it never ran due to weather conditions. It was rather different when using 1:250,000 maps as many roads were not on the map so these could only be used if they were explicitly identified in the instructions, either using grid references or using a route chart. Running as it did up around the central highlands (Marysville etc.), there were many secret checkpoints on old alignments of roads where the new alignment was not on the map, and therefore was not to be used! As with most events back then, it was an all night affair, run in July in atrocious weather. It was perhaps 3 am when snow captured many crews. Our friends, Graham and Garry, managed to avoid most of the snow, skip some sections and we were surprised when they appeared first car on the road at a control just east of Yea. They went on to place reasonably well but the event was won by Bob Watson and Geoff Thomas.
David Bond and I entered the 1973 Experts Trial in the Mk II Cortina as part of our VRC campaign. Somehow, as a result of our good placing in the first round of the VRC, we had a relatively good starting position, probably in the top 10. The event started on the northern outskirts of Melbourne and within a matter of kilometres we were into competitive sections. In fact there were almost no transport sections except for the occasional service points and the division break at Heathcote. I recall the first section ending with a run through the ford a Darraweit Gium. The weather was appalling and the ford was quite deep. The route then ran up some grassy lanes to the west of Kilmore. It was hard going as we were bogging down in the soft easement and could only begin to imagine what it would be like for later cars. Somewhere in there Bob Watson and Jeff Beaumont went past us in the MHDT Kingswood like we were standing still. That big "tank" was a formidable weapon in those conditions. Things got worse after that as we went through some private property and up what became known as the "capeweed hill", basically no track at all and cars all over the place trying to get traction up a paddock. We stopped and fitted chains which got us up the hill but cost us time fitting and subsequent removing them. We then headed further north and into the forests around Costerfield where I did a fair bit of "mapping" (colloquial for getting lost). We got to the division a bit down the field but not totally disgraced, but the more experienced crews were showing their form in this difficult event.
The navigation and atrocious conditions continued as we headed west form Heathcote towards Castlemaine. I recall going through one ford that was so deep that the water came over the bonnet. Somewhere near Sutton Grange we used some more grassy lanes and it was so muddy that we became terribly bogged. There was no defined track, just two fences and lots of grass. I recall riding on the back a bit trying to get traction. We also fitted chains at one point but it seemed to just get us more bogged. Kilf and Mike Osborne went past in the Datsun 260Z, seemingly having no trouble with the conditions. Clearly the Z had a lot of traction, but the crew also had lots of experience! Our event became one of managing our late running time as we skipped controls and tried to minimise our losses, but overall, the event had been a bit of a disaster for us.
Mike Mitchell was the director of the 1974 Experts and he arranged for me to navigate for his usual driver, "Wild" Bill Evans in the quite fast Datsun 120Y. This was a somewhat different kind of Experts to the previous two years, in part because it was a much drier year (but they still found some mud) and in part because the available maps were improving. This meant that the navigation changed from trickery and guesswork to plain hard work. There would literally have been hundreds of grid references and frequent turns, often less than a kilometre apart. Using the full spread of the Heathcote-Whroo Forest, the event used ever more narrow, rough, overgrown and hard to find tracks. Wild Bill was indeed wild, and we bounced and slithered through the maze of tracks at breakneck speed. It was a fun night, despite the hard work, and I don't recall making any major blunders. We finished fourth only 12 minutes behind the winners.
The 1974 Experts set a bit of a pattern for the subsequent years, and indeed Mike Mitchell remained one of the Directors, joined by Stuart Lister and Steve Hollowood. But changes were afoot. Sponsors wanted some more exposure so some daylight sections suitable for spectators were demanded. Competitors were demanding simpler navigation, but in reality, the newer maps were allowing this to happen anyway. So the 1975 Experts began with some route charted daylight sections through the Puckapunyal Army Range Area and the adjacent forests, finishing at a central control at Graytown. Access to the Range Area was quite a coup for the organisers as it made available a whole range of tracks and terrain previously unused and, of course, it was impossible for crews to survey the roads before an event because it is a restricted area. The night comprised three loops of navigational sections to the south-west (towards Heathcote), the north-west (towards Redcastle) and the north (towards Whroo). The navigation was intense, rather like the previous year, with numerous grid references to be plotted and tight, often hard to see tracks to be found. It required absolute concentration. David Bond and I had a basically clean run and finished second to Garry Harrowfield and Geoff Boyd, about 11 minutes adrift.
Part of the Redcastle "Marked Up Maps" gives some idea of the maze of tracks
Both the 1976 and 1977 Experts followed a somewhat similar pattern with daylight stages in Puckapunyal and night loops from Graytown into the maze of goldfields tracks with intense navigation. I sat beside John "Dicko" Dixon in his Datsun 120Y in both events, and both events resulted in mechanical failures. My recollection of 1976 is hazy but the event report indicates that we retired at the three-quarter stage with a blown clutch while lying fourth. I recall going from competitor to spectator and giving advice to my friends Garry Spence and Noel Kelly about managing late time. They went on to win the event but had to skip a section. It must have been more difficult than the previous year for them to have been running over their late time limit.
Dicko and me in the 76 Experts (Photo: Bruce Keys)
I recall 1977 more clearly as the 120Y also blew a clutch, but on the daylight. As luck would have it we were at a spectator point and got towed to Graytown where the service crew replaced the clutch. Of course we had missed several sections so were no longer in the running for victory but we would have a go anyway. As we pulled out of the service area to start the night sections I immediately noticed that the Halda (Accurate odometer) was not turning. It seemed that they had not fitted the speedo cable correctly or perhaps the drive was broken, but in any case, there was no time to fix it so off we went. It was a night of intense plotting and navigating through the myriad of goldfields tracks. To do it without a Halda was actually quite rewarding, and perhaps not quite as difficult as one might expect given the generally very short distances between turns. But it did require total concentration and attention to the map, including every bend, creek crossing etc. As I recall we made no mistakes and were actually 4th on the night division, but 11th overall.
The year 1978 was quite different for a few reasons, not the least of which being that I had changed to the driver's seat. But the weather was appalling. It was one of the wettest years on record, which presented a major headache for some events, including the Ready Plan Rally that I directed. The Experts was no exception and with the Heathcote-Whroo forests an absolute wash, the Forestry Commission withdrew permission for the event. The same basic format had been planned - daylight stages in Puckapunyal and night navigation in the forests. Director Stuart Lister, ever adaptable, managed to convince the Army to let him run the night sections in the Range Area also, and with navigation. The area is somewhat limited and so the overall event distance was much shorter than previously, but the conditions ensured that it would be a memorable Experts. And theoretically, it added the extra hazard of unexploded shells should you deviate too far off the intended route! The daylight stages were somewhat similar to previously, but included a short spectator loop near the central control. I managed to over-rev the engine but it kept going for the entire event, despite the rings probably having disintegrated (it used a bit of oil!). The night sections were a big loop around the range area and the navigation wasn't too difficult and Noel made no mistakes. What made it challenging was the weather. Early in the night it absolutely teemed down, so hard that I could barely see where to go. The place was awash and the conditions treacherous to say the least. Many of the tracks were more like rivers. Latter in the evening there was a memorable creek crossing that was more like a lake. We descended into it and with the water over the bonnet and the lights no longer illuminating ahead it was all we could do to just keep moving. The car was filling up with water but the engine didn't miss a beat, despite the damage. I had, of course, fully waterproofed the electrics with the famous rubber glove and duct tape trick. In the water it's also important to keep the revs up so that the water can't get into the exhaust. We made it through but many didn't. Later at the finish some crews were arriving with stories of being completely submerged and having to wait to get their stricken vehicles towed out by the army! Well it was fun, at least kind of, and we finished fifth outright.
I missed the 1979 Experts due to preparations for the Repco Round Australia. David Jones invited me to navigate for him in the 1980 Experts. By now the Experts was no longer part of the state championship and Stuart Lister had free reign to inflict all of his trickery on competitors. The so-called "2 mm" rule was suspended, meaning that you had to read the map to whatever level of accuracy the director deemed possible! Starting in Heathcote, it was more intense navigation than previously with countless grid references to be plotted on the fly, overgrown tracks to be located and traps to be avoided. We picked up one wrong direction somewhere in the Argyle Forest where the director claimed that the mapped track deviated slightly to the left before control, perhaps as little as 20 metres away. I think only Runnalls got that one from the correct direction. We were doing OK but I was getting very car sick. I could not longer do this intense navigation without being sick because it required constant attention to the map, head down, not looking out the front. Additionally, no disrespect to David, but his driving style was rather like mine - very aggressive and twitchy. By the first major break near Bendigo I was so sick I could no longer continue, even though we were probably running in the top three places. I was not just vomiting but my hands had gone numb and my limbs were tingling. David was disappointed of course but I was just relieved to be able to sit still and recover. That was the last time I competed in a rally!
In subsequent years I course checked the Experts Trial at least twice, probably three times, both for the late Jim Maude and for my good friend, Noel Kelly. Both continued the tradition of intense navigation in the Heathcote-Whroo forest, the same place as the 2012 historic re-run.
