While the full story of the Repco Reliability Trail is told on the Repco Round Australia blogsite, this post is a short summary of this amazing event.
It is worth describing the route and schedule briefly, just so you have a snapshot of the incredible intensity of the event. We did nearly 19,000 kilometres essentially in 14 days, and the only times we got to stop for more than an hour or so was at the major rest breaks in Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Townsville and Sydney. The sections were generally long and we would drive for up to 500 kilometres at a time without even a change of driver. On competitive sections that would reduce to about 300 kilometres but then it would be a quick swap of Wes and myself between the drivers seat and the back seat, usually taking no more than 30 seconds.
I drove more than 50% of the route, Wes about 40% and Geoff about 10%, although Geoff did most of the navigating and was thus awake more than either Wes or myself. The longest stretch of non-stop competitive driving was 359 km by me between Geraldton and Cue, but there were several other instances of single competitive drives over 300 km. On other occasions I drove even longer stretches on highways. Sleeping in the car was never easy, but you became so tired that you just did it!
It also merits mentioning that our service crew, Dick Gill and Steve Baird in the SR5, travelled almost as far as we did and probably got even less sleep than we did. For example, they arrived in Darwin several hours after us but still had to get up when we did and then work on the car. They were effectively a two man crew and although much of the driving was on sealed highways, back in 1979 quite a lot of Highway 1 between Port Hedland and Kununarra was still unsealed. They also had to traverse a long stretch of unsealed road out to Kingoonya and then down past Lake Everard to the Eyre Highway east of Ceduna. Dick and Steve also met us at a few "unscheduled" spots that required some navigation and use of secondary roads, such as east of Meribah in the middle of the Sunset Country stage and at Barrata, Curnamona and Frome Downs on the Flinders Ranges stages.
The event started lunch time Sunday. The seeding special stage at Tooborac, 100 km north of Melbourne, was late afternoon and we secured the result we wanted that raised us from a lowly starting number (81, although we actually started 62nd) to be 32nd on the road. At dusk we headed off into Western Victoria. We did two more competitive sections before we reached Mount Gambier at midnight and then headed up the border through mud and sand to reach Renmark just after dawn on Monday. We had climbed to 15th outright. After an unusually long break of three hours, we dawdled into Adelaide by Monday evening.
Enroute to Adelaide, near Berri
We arose around 3 am and left Adelaide in darkness on Tuesday morning. Soon after dawn we headed out on a series of long and rough competitive sections through the southern Flinders Ranges arriving at Broken Hill at dusk. The break there was over an hour before we headed north west into a long night that would take us back through the Flinders Ranges, up to Marree and through to Coober Pedy at dawn on Wednesday. On Wednesday morning we transported south on the then gravel Stuart Highway and headed west through some sand dune country.
Shock absorber change at Kingoonya
A forced hold of a couple of hours near Maralinga delayed proceedings but the sun set as we negotiated the rocks next to the Trans-Continental Railway. The conditions were tough through that long and terrible night as we gradually raced the dawn westwards across the moon-like Nullarbor, reaching the western edge of the plain as the sun came up behind us. Thursday morning we passed through Kalgoorlie then headed southwards towards Esperance before turning back towards Perth. The stage at Narrogin was late afternoon and it was well and truly dark before we checked into Perth, about 65 hours after leaving Adelaide. It had been tough for us but tougher for others. We were now one of only 26 cars that had completed the course and despite losing almost 5 hours we had climbed to 13th outright.
Perth was a short break - perhaps only four or five hours in a bed and we never saw Perth in daylight. By the time the sun rose on Friday morning we were well north in the vicinity of Lancelin, having witnessed the sudden demise of the Ford team and the private Portman entry. That Friday was a fun day as we proceeded through Geraldton and then eastwards to the old mining town of Big Bell and into Cue at about sunset. Another long night took us through the heart of the Hamersley Ranges including Newman and Wittenoom. The sun rose just as we were starting the Whim Creek "Chocolate Ruffle Pass" horror stage north of Wittenoom. We were in Port Hedland by late morning and even had time for a shower, but only just. The remainder of the afternoon took us north east through Shay Gap and Sandfire Roadhouse. The sun set on the Saturday night somewhere near Broome and by the time we started the event’s longest section through the Kimberley Ranges, it was midnight. We reached Kununurra at dawn on Sunday morning and spent the rest of the day driving along the highway to Darwin which we did reach in daylight - just. Despite our cautious approach we had climbed to 9th outright.
Breakfast stop in Kunnunurra
The Darwin break was extended a few hours after the fatal accident in the Kimberley - the organisers’ attempt to convince the media that we weren’t all mad. It was just dawn as we pulled out of Darwin on Monday morning although we had been up since 4 am showering, eating and servicing the car! Monday would see us head south east across Arnhem Land to Borroloola where we arrived soon after sunset. Monday night took us across the Gulf Country to Burketown through masses of bulldust and south to Mount Isa by dawn. Tuesday took us back north to Croydon and then east to Georgetown by dusk. Overnight we crossed the range to Cairns then ran down the spine of the range to Ingham by dawn and reached Townsville soon after for a day of sleep. We had a dream run, mostly running fourth on the road behind the three Commodores, and we were placed 5th at Townsville, but with the fast Greg Carr just 20 minutes behind us we knew that we could not stay in front of him unless he struck problems - and he didn't.
Crossing a rocky river north of Mount Isa
We left Townsville early that evening and looped inland and back to Mackay then down the coastal range to Rockhampton at dawn on Thursday. It was a leisurely day’s drive southwards to Brisbane with only a couple of short stages, and we reached the special stage just south of Brisbane at sunset. That night we did a series of quite tough competitive sections passing through Grafton and Kempsey before reaching Port Macquarie just before dawn and reaching Sydney by mid Friday morning for another short day of sleep. As expected, Carr had overtaken us and we held a comfortable 6th place which we would hold to the finish.
We left the Sydney showground early that Friday evening and headed to Oran Park for a "spectator" stage then to Canberra by midnight, crossing back into Victoria and reaching the Omeo Highway near Bruthen just on dawn. We proceeded back northwards on the Omeo highway then across Trappers Gap and finished the final competitive stage in Stanley Plantation just before midday on the Saturday. We were at the effective finish in Albury soon after. Saturday night was our first real sleep for 14 days and we departed for the run down the highway to Melbourne at a respectable hour (7.30am). The official finish was back where we had started at the Melbourne showgrounds at lunchtime on Sunday.
Our sixth place surprised many people but not me. We were really well prepared, had a good car and we had practised together. The only thing we did wrong was not get the best tyres available. Our series of punctures across the Nullarbor cost us about two hours, mostly because we chose to go really slowly once we knew we had no spares. As it happens, we never had to actually run on a flat tyre like so many other people did. In any case, that two hours was easily the difference between fourth and sixth.
One of the reasons we did so well was that we hardly lost any time on the transport sections - in fact, only three minutes across the entire event. Barry Ferguson was next best on nine minutes and Brock, the winner, on fifteen. This low score on our part reflected the fact that we never had to use any significant service time to fix anything on the car. It also reflected the fact that we picked up the two most glaring errors in the route instructions, both of which showed transport sections as much shorter than they were so that people got confused or generally ran late.
The event had its memorable moments, although less for us than for so many others. We had a few "offs", although the only significant one was when I was driving south of Kalgoorlie in dust behind Harry Jensen’s Volvo. They had skipped sections and should not have been in front of us. The 342 km section was not that tight for time but we needed to get past Harry anyway. I was running several hundred metres behind in light dust when the dust suddenly became thicker. This is common because the car in front brakes for a hazard and raises dust. The hazard was a washaway, which I couldn’t see, so we hit it, broke a steering rod and speared off the road into a small gum tree but no damage was done other than the steering rod. We lost about 15 minutes changing it, but let several cars by, all of which we had to subsequently pass again. Fortunately we only ended up losing four minutes on the section. The only other time I went off the road was in the Flinders Ranges on a quick bit of road. I went off after a crest but there was nothing to hit so I just changed down a gear and rejoined a few hundred metres further on. The fact that I had someone on my tail didn’t help!
The only other thing we hit was a cow, not far before Burketown. Again, we were in thick dust behind Gil Davis who had passed us when we became bogged in the bulldust for a few minutes. Three cows appeared out of the dust - one went left, one went right, and I clobbered the third one. Again, the damage to the car was minimal and I never found out about the cow. Following cars did not report it lying dead in the middle of the road so I suspect it was just bruised and hobbled off into the scrub.
Wes’s only real moment was on the section south of Mackay where he lost it, put the car up on two wheels and missed a big tree by millimetres. That’s excluding things we hit in the road, like rocks and washaways, of which there were numerous. We punctured on the Nullarbor north of Cocklebiddy when Wes hit a patch of water and spun off the road. There was nothing to hit other than rocks but one did puncture a tyre.
I think the scariest moments were the ones that I can’t remember so well, because they were when I became really tired. The classic was the long section through the Kimberley Ranges, 516 km in just over five hours. It’s fast country but with plenty of crests, dips and rough creek crossing. Tourists regularly take a week to drive this road and we did it in 5½ hours! Wes and I were both tired having had minimal sleep for over fifty hours since Perth and not much there either. Wes drove to 203 km where there was a gate, which Wes hit, albeit gently, indicating that he was "nodding off". It was my turn to take over and I did the remaining 313 km which included some long stretches of thick dust as we tried to catch and eventually pass a slower car that had skipped sections. Following a car in dust for something like 80 km is very hard work, especially when so tired. I eventually caught his tail lights and went for it through the dust, fortunately not hitting anything other than the odd rock. Towards the end of that section I was running on reflexes alone, barely awake and essentially dreaming. In retrospect, it was really dangerous! I had similar feelings on the long section on the western Nullarbor near Rawlinna, but on that occasion I was so tired that I just slowed down to a crawl. It was an eerie sensation and I can vividly recall how I was convinced the road was steadily climbing up a hill. The Nullarbor is, of course, totally flat, and this was just an illusion.
There were sections that I drove and enjoyed thoroughly. The seeding stage was close to that but rather tense. Geoff and I had surveyed it a few weeks earlier so we knew what we were doing. It was only 48 km but we caught and passed two cars. The fast section through the Mount Deception Forest west of Portland on the first night was certainly fun - quick roads (140 km/h) that I knew well, some rain but not so much as to be slushy, and we caught and passed two cars! Very exhilarating. The long run across from Geraldton to Big Bell was also great fun with some lovely roads but most people, including us, made it on time without much trouble. The last section before Townsville was very enjoyable - lots of narrow forest roads, some farm tracks, narrow bridges and such like. We just cleaned the section and when we came in behind Rauno Aaltonen and he complimented me on our quick time, I was pretty chuffed. A similarly enjoyable section was the Horseshoe Forest Road one from Bellingen to Taylors Arms west of Coffs Harbour. We fairly flew and were equal fourth quickest with Dunkerton, behind Portman (who crashed on the next section), Carr and Mehta. It was all the more satisfying given that our car was relatively underpowered for those big mountain stages.
Of course the pise de resistance was the final section in Stanley Plantation which I knew ever so well as director of the Alpine Rally. I had plotted the route on the map and knew it off rote. I drove quickly but safely, as demonstrated by our time, sixth fastest behind Aaltonen, Carr, Brock, Fury and Ferguson, pretty good company I would say. But I really enjoyed throwing the car around, knowing it so well after probably 5,000 kilometres of competitive driving in it over the previous 14 days!
The last corner near Beechworth
Horror sections were not as frequent as we had expected and we didn’t get bogged or otherwise stuck very often. Others got stuck in sand both before Renmark and on the eastern edge of the Nullarbor but we were fine. The car was damned good in sand. The Nullarbor itself was a nightmare of rocks and punctures. The first actual horror section was south of Mount Newman and was vague, overgrown and rocky, but in reality, it wasn’t that bad. I drove and the boys got out to survey on foot at one stage as a few other cars were milling about looking for the correct track. The next horror section north of Wittenoom was much more serious - long stretches of gigantic rocks, which we had to clamber over like a crab, plus several long sandy river crossings with 4WD vehicles to tow us across. We just decided to take it easy and look after the car.
About to start the Nunyerry horror stage, Hammersley Ranges
The sections through the Gulf Country were billed as horrors but were not very bad at all. The run to Borroloola had many creek crossings and we winched out of one of them, but they grossly overestimated the difficulty and everyone was early. The following one to Burketown was only difficult because of the deep bulldust and we got stuck once. The run to Croydon from north of Burke and Wills Roadhouse was mostly fast and easy except for a long sandy river crossing. 4WD tow vehicles assisted us through and then Jurgen Barth overtook me by driving off the road and knocking down scrub - I was impressed with his tenacity especially considering we were all early. The only remaining supposed horror section was just north of Rockhampton and was only entertaining because of some big ditches across the road on a very steep descent, but it was otherwise not very serious.
Driver change at the Cox River, Gulf Country
We witnessed a few other people having some dramas. In the sunset country we had to wait for Archim Warmbold as he tried to get the front wheel drive Audi to climb the sand dunes, and on the eastern edge of the Nullarbor, Cowan was having similar difficulties with the front wheel drive Citroen. On the road into Blinman in the Flinders Ranges I can vividly remember being the first car to arrive on the scene of Larry Perkins with his VW Beetle on its roof smack bang in the middle of the road. They were both OK but their event was over. Later on the Nullarbor we had several teams ask us for spare tyres, but we had already punctured and used both spares so were being really careful ourselves. Portman, for instance, lost a lot of time there when he had to travel a long way on flat tyres.
Immediately after Perth the event effectively ended for several crews. On the "Mickey Mouse" stage around Wanneroo Racetrack, Portman had rolled, seriously damaging the Stanza – a very silly thing to do on such a meaningless stage. Soon after, on the transport section, we came across the lights of Colin Bond’s Cortina having gone straight ahead and rolled at an oblique T-Junction. Again, rather an inauspicious end to their event. Towards the end of the Lancelin section we came across Fury’s Cortina in trouble, engine mounts broken and a hole in the sump. Carr had the same problem at the same time but he recovered to finish fifth after some brilliant driving, but it just showed that the Ford Team had not properly tested their cars as the Commodores had.
Dunkerton was always having some drama or another and it was a credit to his driving and perseverance that he finished fourth. We first saw him changing shock absorbers in Ballarat. We saw him much later near the end of the Kimberley stage with his navigator holding a gravity fuel feed after his fuel pump broke. He started in front of us after Darwin but became lost on the first section and we hardly ever saw him again. He obviously had the brilliance to win the event but was running a largely untested Volvo and had a less than experienced navigator.
Cowan was always going to be a contender and he did well to keep the front-wheel drive Citroen in the top ten until Darwin. We came across him before Port Headland when his suspension hydraulics were gone, no doubt repaired in Port Headland. After Darwin we passed him on the first stage as he had a broken drive shaft and they retired at that point. We ran up the front of the field from that point on and didn’t see too many other people. We could but reflect on the fate of others as we had such a clean run.
