The effort that goes into organising any car rally, even the most basic club event, can be quite overwhelming, but on the other hand, it provides enormous satisfaction to anyone who enjoys maps and logistics. That's me! In fact most rallies have predominantly been organised by navigators, and it's probably fair to say that most top rally navigators have at some point of time turned their hand to organising. Several decades ago the main person responsible for organising a rally was called the Director, or sometimes the Road Director where there was a more extensive organising committee with others responsible for such things as media, officials, spectators, competitor liaison etc. A basic club event could be organised by just one person, other than those who assisted on the day of the event, which includes key officials that set up the various controls and signs, and of course the often numerous volunteers who man the check points. Another important role was the Course Checker, ostensibly an independent person who checks everything is kosher and that all the instructions are accurate. Nowadays the Director is generally called the Clerk of Course and tends to be more hands on with the actual running of the event on the day, whereas in days gone by it is perhaps fair to say that the event "ran itself" once the course was set and the various controls were setup with officials. Certainly back then we usually had a course opening car that ran up to an hour ahead of the field of competitors, essentially to make sure that the roads were open (e.g. no fallen trees) and that the various controls were set up correctly. Nowadays, especially on special stage events, there will be multiple "zero" cars, one running just a few minutes ahead of the first competing car.
My first go at directing was the 1974 CCRMIT Autumn Midnight Trial. Back then, the extensive calendar of rallies, ranging from club level through state championship to Australian Championship events, was established well in advance by the CAMS Victorian Rally Committee, and events were allocated specific areas, often particular shires. I had requested and had been allocated the area around Maryborough in central Victoria. This was an area in which I had become completely lost in the 1972 Derrick but with which I subsequently became much more familiar during 1973 as David Bond and I placed second in that year's Derrick. But during the early part of 1974, with my driver's licence less than 6 months old, I explored the Maryborough forests more thoroughly in my little Corolla, becoming totally familiar with every track. Much of this I did on my own, but on at least one occasion with my erstwhile driver, Geoff Doyle, who was down as assistant director of the event. Good friend Garry Spence was Course Checker and greatly assisted with some of the planning.
I developed a clear concept for the event which aimed to give the competitors some good driving sections, some fair navigation and a fun time with opportunity for some socialising. Most rallies of the time were not only at night, but competitors rarely saw each other except when lost or briefly at refuels, meal breaks and the like. I decided to base the event around a "central control" where the support crews could stay and through which the competitors would pass on several occasions, as well as the finish. My parents, with the trusty caravan and Honda generator, would turn this junction in the middle of the forest into a small lit up village, with a constant barbeque going and someone collating the scores so that everyone would know how they were going. Some in the rallying fraternity credited me with inventing the idea of a central control, which was used extensively in later years, although I suspect it had been done before. Anyway, it worked out quite well.
The route instructions for the event comprised a mixture of route charts (detailed itineraries with distances and instructions) and map plotting with grid references. A copy of the route instructions is available here (thanks to Allen Roberts who kept these!) and a plot of these on Google maps is available here. The results are shown here and it is obvious that the navigation was not quite as simple as I had hoped with only the winning car not missing something. Even the second placed competitor missed a checkpoint, and many other crews became quite bamboozled and lost a lot of time, as well as missing many checkpoints.
As it evident in the instructions, wet weather some days before the event caused a few minor changes to the route. One of the main roles of a Director was the liaise with and gain written permission from the various authorities to use the roads. In most cases, as with the 74 Autumn Midnight, these comprised local shires and forestry districts. This event used relatively few shire roads except for most of the opening "warm up" section, which the Engineer of the Shire of Tullaroop demanded that I reroute onto almost entirely tarmac roads, requiring the insertion of an extra "via". The Maryborough forester also required a minor reroute. Dealing with these authorities was often challenging when wet weather eventuated and they, understandably, did not want "their" roads chewed to pieces by a field of rally cars. Nowadays the situation is much more serious with high powered 4WD rally cars that can destroy roads in any weather such that actual payment by rally organisers for road use is now commonplace.
With the relative success of my first directing role, I would subsequently direct a variety of events during the second half of the 1970s. With assistance from my brother Noel, I directed two state championship events (the 1975 and 1976 George Derrick Memorial Trials), two long distance "adventure events" (the Riverland and Ready Plan Rallies described here), and three International Alpine Rallies (described here). I also directed one of the first fully daylight special stage events in Victoria (the Overture Rally, so named because it was a non-championship "warm up" events at the start of the year), and in 1980 I directed what was perhaps the first rallysprint event in Victoria, the BF Goodrich RallySprint. In all my directing I was keen to do something different and to provide the most challenge and enjoyment for crews, and where appropriate, the best entertainment for spectators. Some of the innovations for which I can at least partly claim responsibility include:
- Using largely unused territory in western Victoria and into South Australia for the 1975 and 1976 Derricks
- The first and perhaps only joint Vic/SA state championship event (the 76 Derrick)
- Using the vast largely unused scrub and station country in Victoria's Mallee and the adjoining areas of NSW and SA
- First major use of the Murray River red gum forests near Echuca, which would subsequently be used for state championship events
- Introduced the "touring" stage concept whereby a normally daylight section would involve navigation but with a target time that would allow the driver to drive conservatively on open public roads
- Introduced quarter and then second timing for the Alpine Rally
- Introduced a maximum penalty provision in the Alpine Rally to increase competition
I think it is fair to say that I was at the forefront of developments in rallying in Victoria at the time and, not surprisingly, I became a member of the Victorian Rally Panel and was its chairman for a couple of years in the late 70s. During that time I helped to institute the "area coordinator" system whereby experienced directors or course checkers were assigned to particular areas in order to help maintain good relations with the relevant authorities and to liaise with directors of events in those areas. In the early 80s I joined the National Rally Committee under chairman, Geoff Sykes. My main focus was on the harmonisation of rally regulations across Australia in a major rewrite of the National Rally Code.
After my retirement from competition and directing I nevertheless did quite a lot of course checking of events for a number of people, including the late Jim Maude, my friend Noel Kelly, and, of course, Ross Runnalls, some of which is described here.
