Alpine Rally 1973 – 1978
Ian Richards (sorry, I don’t have any photos!)
I was interested to read Ian Wilson’s summary of the Alpine Rallies basically up until 1973, which was the first Alpine in which I competed with David Bond in a Mk II Cortina. As Ian Wilson said, it was the first of a series of Alpines that were based in Bright, which became the spiritual home of the Alpine, at least for that decade! It was an arduously long event, with daylight sections on the Saturday in Two Mile Creek Plantation near Bright, and Merriang Plantation, south of Myrtleford (but we missed that when a wheel parted company on the transport (read liaison) somewhere out of Porepunkah. The long, oh so long night sections went over Hotham, down the Dargo High Plains, then eastwards to places I can’t exactly remember (isn’t old age terrible?), eventually returning to Bright again via Omeo and Mount Hotham. The Sunday daylight certainly used Ovens Plantation and I can’t remember what else, but it was a typical hot, dry and dusty Alpine, traditionally on the last weekend in November.
In 1974 I offered to help Frank Kilfoyle run the Alpine. My gods, I was only 19, but did much of the surveying of roads at Easter, mostly up around Tallangatta and Koetong Plantation to the east. The event followed much the same basic idea that Bruce Ford had established the previous year, namely a Bright base, daylight plantation stages Saturday and Sunday with a long night loop out into the ‘real’ Alps. To be honest, I can’t remember which plantations were used when but I vividly recall the night loop because David Bond and I were Car 0 in a bog standard Lancer with Colin Bond chasing us all night in the Torana XU1. It was a long transport up to near Tallangatta, then a sequence of lovely stages around Koeting, down through the rugged country to the south through Cravensville to Mitta Mitta then down the Omeo Highway and up the high plains road to Rocky Valley Reservoir.
I returned to competing with David Bond in 1975 which was directed by the inimitable Geoff Schmidt and a growing band of helpers that formed a core of the Alpine organisation for much of this period. Geoff broke somewhat from tradition by starting in Albury-Wodonga and ran some nice daylight stages through the native forests to the north of Beechworth, the Stanley plantation and through to the traditional Bright base. My most vivid recollection was on the second stage somewhere east of Eldorado when David and I came across Dunkerton and John Large looking at there upturned and very destroyed Datsun 260Z in the middle of the road. Obviously we were second on the road and we stopped to assist for almost two minutes, which we were later allowed. Greg Carr was very close behind us when we got going and I’m fairly sure he went on to win that event, the first of a series of wins only broken in 1978 by Portman. The night loop was another long and arduous affair, in fact I reckon it was even long than the previous year! We did Trappers Gap to Mitta Mitta, a loop up to the north east up Mount Benambra Road which Schmidt appropriately called ‘the back of God’s head’, then down the Omeo Highway to Omeo. As if that wasn’t enough, there was a further loop of stages to the south east as far as Mount Elizabeth (where Carr finally managed to pass us when we punctured) and back up Angorra Range Road. I think we may have actually transported back over Hotham. The Sunday daylight was mostly in Merriang.
You’ve probably got the basic idea by now that nobody ever slept on an Alpine. I can’t recall the competitive distance but these events must have been in excess of 1000 stage kilometres, three times an average 21st century WRC event. But then again, there wasn’t nearly as much transport (liaison)!
I took over the role of Director in 1976 and relinquished it to Stuart Lister after 1978. I wanted to try some new ideas, building on the fantastic work of Bruce Ford, Frank Kilfoyle, Geoff Schmidt, as well as perennial helpers Ian Wilson and Course Checker Robin Sharpley. The great shortcoming of the big long night loop through the alps was that spectators were not catered for, and by now, hundreds, if not thousand of spectators, were coming to see the Alpine. So in 1976, while sticking with the tried and tested Bright base, I ran the night loop through the native forests north of Beechworth and the Stanley pine plantation to the south east. Some rarely used roads such as Mount Porepunkah links the route back to Bright. In fact, if I recall correctly (aging again!), the Saturday daylight stages end in Wangaratta for a service and meal break. Sunday was the now traditional Merriang, Running Creek and Hurdle Creek stages to the south of Myrtleford.
Now as I’m sure you can immediately see, this event was just not long enough. So in 1977 I decide to start in Melbourne on the Friday afternoon and transport up to the south end of the Strathbogie Ranges, just past Bonnie Doon on Lake Eildon. We ran a series of stages through the Strathbogies, Warrenbayne plantation, Reef Hills and a length transport across through Milawa and in the back end of Hurdle Creek for a late night run through Merriang. After the midnight or later arrival in Bright the event re-started on Saturday and followed a rather similar format to the precious year. I think 1977 was also the first year that we used fully ‘tuliped’ instructions. And I think we were still using quarter minute timing!
For my last Alpine as director in 1978 I wanted it to be even bigger and better. The start was slightly earlier with a Bourke Street Mall ‘rally show’ then up to Reef Hills for a few daylight stages. My memory is hazy on the night run to Bright but perhaps it used some of the native forest near Beechworth as well as probably Flagstaff Road to the south and Two Mile Creek plantation near Bright. The Saturday format was mostly new and certainly included lost of Ovens plantation (I remember this because Brock with my brother Noel as co-driver speared off the road and eventually got back on – we ran a maximum penalty system rather like the WRC does now, except that you could just take a maximum on one stage and then continue on the next stage and still be in the running). From there I had them do a lovely series of loops through Stanley Plantation. My goal was always to maximise spectator access and to have spots where spectators could see cars two or three times from the same location. Before lunch I added a new section over Mount Barandudu before a service break in Wodonga and a run around the Hume Weir race circuit. In the afternoon the event headed east to the Koetong plantation that had not been used since 1974, but this time in daylight. After a service and meal break we used a shorter and less arduous set of night stages back to Bright via Cravenville, Trappers Gap, and the first ever use of the bitumen over Tawonga Gap (which Brock won, of course), but I had to neutralise the Tawonga Stage after the first 20 or so cars as we didn’t really have permission to close it. We tended to push the envelop a bit in those days! The Sunday stages were in Two Mile Creek and Merriang as well as some nice spectator stages along side the Ovens high at Braithwaites plantation and on the back Bright Road in Porepunkah plantation. Carr won, of course, although Portman was always a threat but I think that was the year he shortened the back of the Datsun when he spun backwards into a bank.
I had a fabulous run with the Alpine and was absolutely blessed with good weather. Sure, we had some terrible weather in the lead up to the event, during which I regularly got stuck in out of the way places. On at least two occasions I had to walk out of forests late at night in order to call for assistance to extract a bogged car – these were the days before mobile or sat phones! But despite wet weather in the lead up, every event was dry, hot and dusty. I felt for Stuart Lister when he took over in 1979 and had at least one wet Alpine, which was a nightmare of re-routing and rescheduling during the event. I did course check a few times but I’m sure Stuart Remembers that better than I do!