This shot beautifully captures the laconic nature of Dicko
We did most of the 1976 VRC rounds and the Victorian ARC rounds which included in 1976. Apparently we came third in the Brass Money Trial, second round of the 1976 VRC, after protesting against being exlcuded for dangerous driving. It seems we threw some stomes into teh control official's dinner with a little too much wheelspin at the start of a section. We won round three, the AKademos, but scored no more points in the 76 VRC. It's difficult for me to remember the details of many of the events. We had mechanical problems in the Experts Trial in both years, as described elsewhere. We also had some major drama on the North Eastern Rally and retired. We finished well down in the Hunter Safari, again a mechanical issue, and I don't think we even attempted the final round, the Eclipse Motors Trial.
One event that I do recall was when we won the 1976 Akademos Rally, a round of the VRC. I remember this event moderately well because of a couple of interesting incidents. The event ran in the traditional Akademos territory north of Bairnsdale, but required plotting and mostly simple map reading. Sometime during the first half there was a specified via that didn't quite make sense. It turned out it was on an old alignment and the main road was unmapped. We lost a bit of time there, but mostly because of a different problem which I can no longer recall - probably a puncture. Anyway, we never found that via but as it turned out, neither did anyone else. It was not manned and indeed the organisers had never intended that the route go via the old somewhat vague and overgrown old alignment. After the finish we popped back to have a better look and we sussed out exactly what was going on. We told the organisers who agreed that the section must be deleted because the via was incorrect. That was, of course, to our advantage as we had lost more time on that section than our immediate competitors.
The second issue I think also occurred on the first half of the event. A section ran eastwards along Ash Range Road to its junction with Big Creek Road near what is called Walshs Gap on the Omeo Highway (now Great Alpine Road). There was a manned via there after which we were expected to follow Big Creek Road generally southwards, then onto Beckers Road and Mount Little Dick Road and on to the end of the section down Martens Road. But there were no more vias specified, which seemed reasonable as the official map suggests there is no other way to go. But the map did not show Cavannahs Boundary Track which provides a quick link across from the Omeo Highway to Beckers Road. I reckoned we could continue down Ash Range Road to the highway, blast 11 km along the tarmac and nip in Cavannahs and pick up a couple of minutes rather than using the tight and twisty Big Creek Road (which was famous for catching George Fury out in the Akademos one year). Well it worked a treat and I think it won us the event. I think the Director was a bit dark on me, but I'd done nothing illegal. Apparently Alf and Ian Baldock did the same - they dropped 4, us 3 and the next best was Waterhouse and Paterson on 5. Never mind, we won by 4 minutes anyway.
>Unfortunately 1977 was not a whole lot better. We apparently scored second in the second round, the Marchal, but we certainly had reliability issues in a number of events, including the Experts again.
Bruce Keys photo, probably on the 1977 Marchal Rally where we finished second.
