1964 “Antarctica 1” VW conquers a dry
BP
Ray Christie
and Joe Dunlop won a very tight contest in their VW just back from a twelve
month stint at Mawson base of the Australian National Antarctic Research
expedition.
Once again,
crews rallied from four interstate locations to Geelong. Only five crews cleaned the 500 mile Rally
Stage. The Trial Stage commenced at noon
on Thursday 7 May from Fyansford after a police escorted convoy through the
city. Three divisions, each made up of up
to three a, b or c components followed with breaks at Hamilton, overnight
(depart 8. am Friday), Mt Gambier (depart 2.15 pm), Horsham (depart 7.45 pm) Sea
Lake, for the first time, (depart 2.30 am Saturday), Stawell (depart 11.30 am)
to another overnight break at Bendigo (depart 7 am Sunday), to Ringwood before
parade into the waiting 12,000 people at Chadstone Shopping Centre finish.
Divisions 1 a
and b caused few issues with two crews clean and three crews one minute down at
Mt Gambier. A trap at Haven just before
Horsham caught out ten crews, costing Ellis/Guymer the event. McPherson/Home led down 1 at Horsham.
Three
controls within two miles at Lorquon created some grief, but not as much as the
sand after Burroin, which brought about McPherson’s fall from grace. The novices Watson/McAuliffe cleaned the
Division to lead by one point at Sea Lake.
Other than
Waitchie the run towards Stawell was easy until crews had to find a way through
the Deep Lead forest to the final control into Stawell. One journal of the day reported that “Rally Director, D.K. Thomson,
flanked by his assistant “foxes”, was seen dancing a jig of pure joy on the
last control into Stawell, where a constant procession of cars passed, re-passed,
turned, studied their maps again in an attempt to find the correct route into
control. Even the novice competitors had
become familiar faces by the time they finished cruising backwards and forwards
on the two alternative tracks. Ray
Christie, in Antarctica 1, came back from one trip into the scrub in such a
hurry that he flattened a fence after hitting a stretch of ball-bearing
gravel. Six crews managed to clean,
including Laurie Graham/Bruce Ford VW, Harry Firth/Frank Kilfoyle Cortina GT,
Tony Theiler/AJ Denham VW and Leo Squires/Jack Wilson EH Holden.”
Watson now
had a comfortable lead at Stawell, before the mayhem to follow on the division
to Bendigo. Getting through Mt Cole and
Mt Lonarch was fine, but finding the way out of the Ben Major forest to Lexton West
was the “greatest point stripper of the Rally”.
Further strip shows at Percydale, Archdale West and Arnold North saw
Christie move into a narrow lead at Bendigo, and despite losing a scrutineering
point at Chadstone, won by one point over the Hartigan brothers, Martin and
Bill in a VW. Ian Vaughan/Geoff Thomas
snuck into third in their Ford Anglia.
The Teams prize went to the Ford combination of Harper and Hughes in
Falcons and Firth in a Cortina.
43 crews
started and 32 finished.
Details:
General Supplementary Regulations
No Final
Supplementary Regulations, or General Information
No Movement
Orders for official cars
No Organiser's
Master Schedule
Trial Stage Route Instructions
Route map
Comprehensive Official Results section by section
Media reports: Australian Auto Sportsman July 1964
Australian Motor Sports July 1964
BP Longlife advertisement post event
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