1960 Kilfoyle Emerges in a Very Wet One
Kevin Lott
and Frank Kilfoyle in a Volkswagen emerged as a new force in trials winning
outright and in so doing knocked off more fancied crews.
The event
moved from the March long weekend date to what has become the traditional date
on the first weekend in May, and so making the sport even more unpopular with
many partners due to the clash with Mother’s Day. Most mothers didn’t seem to think that going
to the finish of the BP was a suitable Mother’s Day treat.
Six inches of
rain across Victoria in the week before, made for a testing event for
organisers and competitors. The Director
got bogged at one stage, and some sections were altered to be passable. Eighteen crews should have been excluded
according to the regulations for not making Division end in time, but were
allowed to continue with an additional penalty.
63 started,
with five from SA and eight from NSW, although only 35 started from Melbourne
as some Victorian crews elected to start from Mt Gambier, Murray Bridge or Goulburn.
The 440 mile
Rally Stage ended up at Shepparton, where the planned 1475 mile Trial Stage,
over seven divisions commenced at 7 pm on Thursday 5 May.
Rest and
refuel breaks of 30-60 minutes were provided at Benalla (2.30 am), Seville (10
am) and Seymour (3.30 pm) before an overnight break at Ballarat. The field set off again at 8 am Saturday with
breaks at Warrnambool, Horsham and Bendigo, before assembling at Tullamarine at
1 pm Sunday for the run into the finish on The St Kilda Esplanade.
Many crews
got bogged on the first section into Burrumboot East, and drowned in the second
section through Redcastle, not a good start.
There was no
Division over the Alps this year; fortunately as they were covered in 15 feet
of snow at the time, but a long 67 mile section from Jamieson past Cumberland
Junction to McMahons Ck via through the foothills would have had the field
nervous. There were impassable fords
between Ballarat and Warrnambool, but an easier run to Horsham.
Given that
finding Tarnagulla at 3 am proved such a hit last year, the organisers followed
up at the same time of night with a similar drop off route chart, and note
handed at that point to “Enter Alma from the SW”, which proved just as popular
as Tarnagulla in 1959.
15 crews
completed the course, including a tiny Goggomobile Dart, with 33 classified as
finishers. Filling out the major
placings were G.L.A Russell/W. Walsh/G Spanos in a Peugeot in second and K.
Young/K. O’Neill in a Volkswagen in third.
No SA crews finished and Doug Stewart and Vince Brown in their Skoda
Octavias finished from NSW. Volkswagens
filled five of the first seven places, but three Standard Vanguards won the Teams
prize.
Donald
Thomson’s post event report included the normal analysis of where most points
losses were accrued, acknowledgement of the many car clubs involved in manning
controls, plus a couple of pithy literary quotations.
The first
Director’s bronze medals were awarded to the NSW crew of Doug Stewart and Barry
Lloyd. Not sure what his criteria were.
Details:
No General
Supplementary Regulations or Final Supplementary Regulations or Final
Instructions to Crews
Trial Route Instructions (collection of all those slips of paper handed out at each
control)
Route map
Official Results incorporating Director’s Summary Report
Media reports: Pre Event Advertisement
Australian Motor Sports June 1960
Modern Motor July 1960
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