Almost all of my rallying was in Victoria, with notable exceptions being the Southern Cross Rally in norther NSW and, of course, the 1979 Repco Round Australia. However, as navigator, I had a number of opportunities to compete in Tasmania and once in South Australia. These were generally because a regular navigator was directing an event and needed a "stand in" for their regular driver.
I reckon the first such occasion was in 1974 when Tasmanian champion driver, Lin Gigney, contacted me to navigate for him in a state championship event (probably the Southern Safari) that was being organised by his regular navigator, Ross Kelly. This was quite a thrill for a young 19 year old navigator, on top of my selection by Frank Kilfoyle into the Datsun Rally Team. I think Ross Kelly sent me over a package of maps to study in the weeks before the event, but I'm not sure that he sent any sample instructions, such as from the previous year. I flew over to Hobart to meet Lin and his wife on the Friday before the event, which like most state championship events at that time, ran for the full duration of Saturday night. Lin and his wife are lovely people and I was made very welcome in their home, as well as visiting Lin's workshop, where the Lancer was being prepared. The event started in Hobart but traversed country in the Midlands and then north-east to forests around Fingal, as was commonly used in numerous Tasmanian events.
Several things in Tasmania were a bit different from my experiences in Victoria! The starting order was by ballot so despite the fact that Lin was considered one of the top few drivers, we did not start anywhere near the front of the field. The navigation was meant to be straightforward, but for a "foreigner" it was decidedly tricky. Among the unusual tricks were "Enter to" rather than "Enter from", and the common Tasmanian practice of "Return to Control" which didn't actually say anything about how to return to control! While most of the instructions required the plotting of grid references, it was also quite common to use a mixture of different maps including the "whole of state" 1:1 million scale maps. And generally the instructions were issued on the fly requiring plotting in a moving car. Although I don't recall any "shortest mapped route" sections, there were certainly "drop off" route charts and pieces of unmapped roads. There was also the uniquely Tasmanian practice of a "redirect" whereby a via would be placed on an impassable road but when you got there, the official would hand you a piece of paper telling you to turn around and go a different way. All great fun! On the social side, Tasmania also used the idea of a "coffee break" whereby at a number of controls throughout the night you would be able to stop for 5-10 minutes and be handed a nice warm cup of coffee. This was especially nice given the Tasmanian weather, which was usually wet and sometimes we encountered snow up around Ben Lomond. I later instituted coffee breaks on the Derricks and Riverland/Ready Plan Rallies.
It's fair to say that I found my first foray into Tasmanian rallying a tad daunting and we made a few mistakes. I can't remember where we finished, but it was not impressive. Lin didn't seem to mind, and appeared to just enjoy competing. Unfazed, I returned for more when a young and relatively inexperienced guy, David Rose, asked me to navigate for him in his somewhat unreliable Mark 1 Cortina. It may have been later in 1974 or 1975. Again, the navigation was tricky, but I did pretty well, yet the conditions were atrocious and I think we got stuck a few times. The car also had some problems, so again, we did not do all that well. History records that I returned to navigate for Lin in August 1975 in the second last heat of teh Tasmanian Rally Championship and that we placed a creditable third outright.
David asked me to return to Tasmania in 1977 for another go, the Southern Safari in July. This time he had a shiny new Lancer and a lot more experience. I seem to recall that the event covered a lot of forestry country around Fingal and Scamander. The navigation seemed to be a lot more straightforward, or at least less tricky, but still with plenty of plotting and map reading. Our downfall this time was that David wanted to show me a good time in Hobart so we went out to a night club on the Friday night, drinking and dancing until quite late. After all, his car was sponsored by Silvers Nightclub! Of course we should have been getting a good night's sleep because these events were long and all through the night and into Sunday morning. Well we were doing really well, and were in fact a few minutes in the lead as the sun came up on Sunday morning. I clearly recall that on a straightforward section in a plantation near Fingal I just fell asleep, missed a turn and woke up about 3 km down the wrong road. We quickly retraced, but lost several minutes and the lead. We ended up finishing second to Trevor Garrett and Terry Bracken.
Early in 1976 I went to SA for a state championship event. Adrian Mortimer was organising the event and so needed a stand in for his regular driver, Brenton Maidment in a very quick Torana. I think Brenton worked for Holden, and the car was certainly well prepared and very competitive for the conditions in SA where the roads are soooo fast. I flew to Adelaide and was treated to the hospitality of the Maidment family on the Friday, but no late night frolicking on this occasion. I think at the time the rallies in SA were just kind of randomly allocated shires (district councils) where they could run and this event was mostly on the Yorke Peninsula, which must be one of the most boring areas for a rally I have ever seen. Nonetheless, the event found some interesting laneways and sandy tracks along the coastline, as well as some super fast typically South Australian roads full of crests and dips. The event started up near Port Wakefield, had a break at Maitland and finished back north of Port Wakefield. I think it was mostly detailed plotting on the 1:250,000 scale maps and was very intense, especially one section that involved a "loop the loop" through a complex of sandy laneways where there seemed to be many crews going in all kinds of unfathomable directions! It required solid concentration, but I was a bit surprised when we reached the midway break that we were just in the lead. Unless you made an error, and with minute timing, there would not be much time between any of the top runners. We continued to have a clean run but as the night wore on, I was becoming more tired. Towards the end as we were following some super quick cresty gravel roads near the top of St Vincents Gulf, I lost concentration for a moment and we overshot a turn, seemingly easy to do at close to 200 km/h. Brenton quickly had us turned around in a power slide on the wide gravel road but we lost a precious minute. It was crucial as we ended up coming equal first with another crew, and but for that error would have been clear winners.
Brief Report in Auto Action 1 April 1976
Later in 1976 I joined Lin for a second run in a Tasmanian championship event, in fact I think this was the weekend after Dicko and I had won the Akademos. The Tasmanian event was in the north so Ross Kelly was not organising, but I think was unavailable for some other reason. I reckon we started in Launceston and the first section went up the Sideling, a twisty piece of the Tasman Highway to the northeast that is often used by Targa Tasmania. But we had to leave the highway and fossick up some very overgrown and steep firebreaks in a pine plantation. It was still dusk and I remember us knocking down small pine trees. I think by 1976 the field was more seeded and I think we were first car on the road. I don't recall much else of the event, but it was certainly long and arduous. It was well and truly daylight by the time we finished, perhaps in Longford or somewhere like that, but during the night we'd been well over to the east coast and, I think, up north towards Bridport. Anyway, we won that one OK.
So in 1976 I had won three state championship rounds in three diferent states, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
I returned to Tasmania once more to navigate for Janiene Kilfoyle, perhaps in 77, as the organisers of an event in the north of the island state were trying to raise the profile to get ARC status, so they had some real incentives to get mainland crews to attend. Among those who made the voyage were Colin Bond and John Dawson-Damer in the works Escort. The event was based out of the Launceston Casino, now Country Club, that offered adequate accommodation, and it was quite social for the interstate crews before and after the event. The event itself ran through many areas along the north coast, from just east of Launceston to forests south of Burnie. The conditions were challenging, with a lot of rain and mud. Despite assurances, the navigation was quite intense with a lot of map reading, but at least it was not tricky. We didn't do all that well because Janiene was not really that quick and we got stuck in mud a few times. I seem to recall having to winch out on one occasion!
