Having a bit of a fang. Looks like the 1978 Ballarat Stages.
I don’t mean learning to drive in the sense of getting a licence, but learning to drive quickly on dirt. Nevertheless, it’s worth mentioning that back in the early 70s in Victoria one could not put on your L plates until age 17 and get your licence until age 18. So I had already won my first rally as a navigator before I could legally drive and had done two-thirds of a season beside David Bond before I actually got my licence. Not long after, I found myself beside Frank Kilfoyle, a former Australian Rally Champion, so I had some examples to emulate! Interestingly, as described elsewhere, David and Frank had altogether different driving styles, the former quite smooth and flowing, the latter much more aggressive.
During the early part of 1974 I ventured out in my trusty Corolla to plot the route for the CCRMIT Autumn Midnight Trial, the first of many events that I directed. Surveying roads was not a really good way to learn to drive but on occasions there was an opportunity to have a bit of a fang. As described elsewhere, it was not long after this that Kilf and I were clearing a rally near Greytown when I clipped a stump and spun into a tree. Lesson One – do not cut! I was starting to understand that competitive driving demands absolute concentration and an awareness of the conditions, in that case, the ubiquitous Goldfields stump beside the track. The poor Corolla had its first of several visits to the panel shop and I got to drive Graham Horsfield’s rally prepared Corolla for a few weeks, including Easter surveying the Alpine around Tallangatta and some great opportunities to drive on slippery plantation tracks.
I probably drove in my first rally during 1974, a novice event in the area around Lancefield north of Melbourne. My then girlfriend was navigating but I seem to recall I had to navigate as well as drive. I think we came second.
At the end of 1974 a group of us headed to Port Fairy in western Victoria to survey the 2-day Derrick which ran the following April. There was lots of driving on all manner of roads from the cresty shire roads around Casterton, the super fast roads of the Heywood Forest, the tight tracks around Hotspur, the grassy plantation tracks of Kentbruck and the sandy tracks of Dergholm. This was a real education in driving on a wide variety of roads but in this case it was my then girlfriend that sent the Corolla on another visit to the panel shop after putting it through a barbed wire fence! Sadly the Corolla was in the panel shop again after the Derrick after hitting a roo while I was car zero.
After a busy year and a win in the VRC with David Bond, my trusty Corolla and I set off again around Christmas to look for new roads around Mt Gambier for the 76 Derrick. I had another of those “stump” moment exploring a paddock near Tarpeena and ended up having to straighten a front wishbone in the local Forestry workshop! By the time the Derrick had been run (March) the Corolla was on its last legs and, having just accepted the role of Director of the Alpine Rally, it was time to get a new survey/rally car. Of course it was a Datsun 1600, purchased from a “little old lady” (she really was!) who lived around the corner. I certainly did a lot of driving while surveying the Alpine that and subsequent years. It was a great way to learn to drive the car, although for much of the time it was shod only in normal road tyres with standard suspension and only a sump guard added. As described elsewhere, the challenges of surveying were often associated with the roads that would never be used because they were too rough, too steep or too boggy.
Surveying and helping to course check and car zero parts of the Riverland Rally from Christmas 1976 and up until the event in April 1977 exposed me to some different terrain, particularly the fast open station country north of Mildura that would be typical of what I would find in many parts of the Repco Round Australia a couple of years later.
There is little doubt that all this surveying helped me develop a good sense for “reading the road” and being aware of the kinds of conditions that were presenting themselves. It is perhaps worth mentioning that all of my subsequent competitive driving was in “blind” rallies, that is, we had no pace notes and therefore never, in theory, knew what the road ahead was like or what lay over the next crest. This required a somewhat more defensive style of driving and an ability to throw the car sideway (using the handbrake if necessary, and my old Datsun had a “pull” handbrake under the dashboard!) to deal with an unexpected tight corner. On the other hand, there were some areas of Victoria where I came to know the roads very well and this “local knowledge” perhaps helped my driving in a handful of events.
Apparently this was on the 1976 CCRMIT Presidents Trial near Powelltown. Photo by John Wilkinson.
It looks like Noel sitting beside me.
By late 1976 I was considering doing some competitive driving but funds were very tight. It was about this time that the car got a single Weber carburettor and some beefed up suspension. But I still only had Dunlop Aquajets on the car, which were not exactly the tyres of choice for rallying! I was going to compete in the CCRMIT Club Championship throughout 1977, which I had won as a navigator in 1972, but this time as a driver with Kate Niblett as navigator. By 1977 the club championship consisted of about 5 club level events run not only by CCRMIT but by a few other closely aligned clubs, plus the “open” CCRMIT Presidents Trial run towards the end of the year.
I think the first event was the Autumn Midnight in March, although the above picture suggests I was in the 1976 Presidents Trial.
The Autumn Midnight, which although earlier than usual in March, was rather wet. Fortunately I was also navigating for John Dixon in the VRC and he kindly offered me a set of used wintertread tyres on alloy rims. It was a Godsend. With some very slushy sections near Spargo Creek, and I don’t think I could have kept the car on the road without proper tyres. We went on to win the event.
The mag wheels and the mud suggest this was on the 1977 Autumn Midnight
In May I had offered to help Big George Davidson with the organisation of the Akademos, which was being run as a round of the Victorian Clubman Series, in which I was ineligible to compete as a navigator and unprepared to compete as a driver. The event ran in traditional Akademos country north of Bairnsdale. For whatever reason, I ended up in the car on my own and had to set up some controls then drive through a couple of stages ahead of the field (we did not have “real” car zeros back then so we were typically an hour ahead of the field). It was a wet night and the roads were very slippery. With Aquajets on the car I was all over the place and despite taking it pretty easy, I managed to slip off the edge of Tabberabbera Road (used in the 2015 Alpine). It was a “slow” accident and the car was largely undamaged except for a small dint in the roof where it was leaning against a large gum tree, but for which I might have toppled well down the hillside. The situation was potentially just a little bit embarrassing but I knew I had an hour until the first car so I clambered up onto the road and assessed the situation. Soon enough I had the Tirfor winch out (we always carried a winch) and strung across the road at a steep angle to a big tree up on the bank opposite. Perhaps 15 minutes of hard winching and the car was back on the road. Winch packed away and I headed off, still with 30 minutes to spare to the first car. Once home, Dicko, who conveniently ran a panel shop in Clayton, soon had the roof of my Datsun repaired
Lesson Two – drive to the conditions, especially when super slippery. You can’t go rallying without good tyres and if your tyres are not adequate you must slow down to a crawl in muddy and slippery conditions. Even so, there are countless examples of drivers, even at the WRC level, who overcook it when the conditions become deplorably slippery. It seems outrageous to slow down to a snail’s pace but sometimes it is necessary in order to survive.
With my borrowed tyres and the rather limited preparation on the car, we nevertheless managed to go on to win the CCRMIT club championship although I don’t think we won any more events, just reasonable placings, including second in the MUCC Bog-A-Duck Trial. I recall on the final event, the President Trial, I punctured one of the “borrowed” wintertread tyres early in the event and had to run a non-wintertread tyre in its place for the remainder of the event. Fortunately it was fairly dry!
I was hooked on this driving thing so decided in 1978 to do the full VRC with my brother Noel as navigator. My warm up event was the Ballarat Stages, one of the early daylight special stage events directed by Ross Runnalls and Geoff Boyd. Kate navigated for me. It was a fun day, with some short stages in a quarry and across some paddocks to Mount Cole where the majority of the competition took place. There was no doubt we were competitive but at a THL in Mt Cole I clipped the inside apex and slowly put the car on its side. No damage but with no spectators around and insufficient muscle power, we had to winch it back onto its wheel with perhaps 10 minutes lost. Lesson Three – don’t cut!
In the VRC proper we started well with a good placing (Equal 3rd Outight, only 1 minute off a win) in the super fast Otways Rally. But the car was not up to scratch and we only just finished when the alternator nearly fell off. Somehow through the good graces of the late Gil Davis, we managed to coax the car into a semi-competitive state even though I was running on an absolute shoestring budget. The next round was the Begonia and we were going well until there was a flame out from the carby on a tight turn and we had a fire under the bonnet. The fire was extinguished but we had lost time refitting the fuel hoses. The Mountain Trial, run by Monty Suffern, was a low point when I clipped a rock or stump on the apex of a left-hander coming down the appropriately named Insolvent Track, north of Stratford. Even though we eventually managed to winch the car back on the road and drive it home, the body was a right off and over the next month or so we got a new body shell and bolted all the good bits onto it. Lesson Four – don’t cut!
Probably on the Begonia Rally or early on the Mountain Rally [photo: Ken Cusack]
The 1978 VRC went better after that. In the quite wet Derrick (with Kate navigating, as Noel was director), I managed to ding both rear panels on the same piece of road as I weaved up a slippery track in Mt Cole! It was on the final section and the accelerator spring had broken so I had to pull the accelerator back with my toe! Nevertheless, we managed to finish 6th. I managed to over-rev the engine in the Experts Trial, requiring a replacement block, but we finished the event OK and placed 5th. On the postponed Akademos we apparently came 4th although I can't remember the event at all! The VRC ended on a high with a second placing to Chris Brown on the North Eastern Rally which used roads very familiar to me from the Alpine Rally. We ended up 4th in the VRC overall behind Warwick Smith, Chris Brown and Chris Power, pretty good company to be in! I was placed 11th on the Victorian Drivers Seeding List.
I was reading Bruce Keys' book on Geoff Portamn recently and it has a chapter on IFK250, the famous Grunter. Bruce notes the impressive early performances of Geoff in IFK250 which had only "been fitted with what could loosely be desribed as a Gil Davis Club Rally Kit", namely single weber, half alloy cage, uprated springs, struts and rear shocks and maybe an LSD, plus of course the mandatory sumpguard. But that was exactly what my Datsun 1600 had - but with a L18 engine and a mild cam. I thought it was pretty hot, but is was actually very ordinary, underpowered and certainly by no means fast compared with some of the other macinery around in 1978. So I feel pretty proud of what we achieved with such a modest rally car, and am thankful to those who assisted, particularly the late Gil Davis and my service boys, Dick Gill and Doug Hall.
Unfortunately, as a student, I simply did not have any funds to continue driving competitively but the next year was to be dedicated to the Repco Round Australia Trial for which I had been offered an “all expenses paid” drive with Wes Nalder in the Celica. That story is, of course, told elsewhere.
