Derby to Darwin

Saturday night saw the event traverse the longest competitive stage through the Kimberley before a short transport into Kununurra. The stage would present no problems for the leading three Commodores but behind them there was dust, frustration, time loss and of course, the tragedy of a multiple fatality. Upon daylight was a mostly liesurely 'Sunday drive' through to Darwin.

W20 – Kimberley Trial Stage

Distance	Time allowed	First car due	Map
516.2 km	5 hours 10 minutes	1.52 am Sunday Actual approx 3.10 am	Click here

The Gibb River Road is now a popular tourist route but few would consider tackling it in a normal road car, even now that it has been somewhat upgraded but still mostly unsealed. Tourists usually take a week to traverse its length, not 6 hours! In 1979 this 516 km stage was fast, mostly rough and rocky, very undulating with many blind crests, and certainly very dusty. The numerous creek crossings were sometimes sharp and potentially car breaking. Some crossings had water and the Pentecost River in particular was 300 metres of water interspersed with rock outcrops and sandbars. For all the leaders the stage was completed in darkness, which was a shame given the strikingly beautiful scenery.

The Gibb River Road is now a popular 4WD tourist route
(Photo from Panoramio)

Brock would have started the stage about 10 pm with Mehta and Ferguson nicely spaced behind with good gaps of 10 to 15 minutes. These gaps were crucial to a good run and times on the stage ultimately reflected how much dust they encountered. Only the three Commodores would lose no time, achieving the 100 km/h average speed. Next after the Commodores would have been Dunkerton, a good 40 minutes behind Ferguson and therefore with a dust free run. Then came Barth’s Porsche and Portman, the interloping Subaru of Koeski then Cowan, an interloping VW (probably Moore who had booked in over 2 hours early at Napier Downs), the interloping Colless and then Nalder, all with gaps of 5 to 10 minutes. The first 8 leaders were spread over more than 2 hours with at least 3 interlopers that would cause problems for Cowan and Nalder. Some way behind them was Gil Davis, Edgar Herrmann and Greg Carr. Denis Baker’s P76, having skipped earlier stages, was scheduled to go out in front of Nalder but agreed to let Nalder go first. It remains a mystery why the organisers could not hold those few cars so that those who had done the entire course could at least only have each other’s dust to contend with.
As it was, Cowan sat behind the Subaru for hundreds of kilometres unable to pass. Nalder got past the VW when they stopped after a creek with some damage while Dave Colless stopped and allowed Nalder through, but then with Richards driving, the Celica followed Cowan and the Subaru for about a hundred kilometres. Eventually both Cowan and Nalder passed the Subaru, but not without a lot of dangerous antics. Dunkerton’s fuel pump failed and he had to jerry-rig a gravity feed system, then they blew two tyres and broke a tie rod and had to limp the last 20 km to control, eventually losing more than an hour. Portman had broken an oil line and had to effect makeshift repairs, losing 27. Davis went off the road in dust and was lucky to escape with minimal damage, but was almost an hour late. Further back still, Rowney and Carr both must have passed a number of cars but still had plenty of dust and dropped about half an hour each.
It was during this section that the double fatality occurred when the Peugeot 504 of Norm Saville, Peter Harris and John Fyvie rolled into a creek, reportedly in dust and driving into the rising sun. Harris and Fyvie were killed. There was something of a veil of silence around this incident, despite it being given a fair bit of coverage at the time. It eventually emerged that they had been carrying a spare differential in the car, presumably not well restrained. Such a tragic outcome was certainly something that should never have occured in a well prepared rally car.
Finlay/Sullivan/McLeod (Commodore) were first on the scene and administered first aid to Saville, obviously losing considerable time themselves, having had a great run since Perth and not having missed any controls. They then left Goldsborough/Flanagan/Ground (Commodore) as they went to notify authorities. Goldsborough, although having missed controls, took a maximum 4 hour penalty on the stage but later received the organisers' Sportsmanship Award.

The results showed 64 cars completing the stage:

• Brock, Ferguson, Mehta clean
• Taylor (Rover) 8
• Miettunen 12
• Lahiff 13
• Nalder 18
• Roberts 19
• Barth and Herrmann 24
• Portman and Cowan 27
• Rowney 29
• Carr 31
• Murray 36
• Watson 42
• Jackson 52
• Loader 53
• Lance 54
• Davis, Boys 56
• Faulkner and O'Donnell 58
• Lloyd 1.01
• Travis 1.02
• Hilton 1.07
• Jensen 1.12
• Birrell 1.13
• Penny 1.14
• Foden, Kahler
• Mizel 1.17
• Hurrey 1.18
• Finlay 1.26 *
• McCubbin 1.27
• Koch 1.28
• Clarke, Lockhart, Colless 1.30
• Tattingham 1.31
• Giddings 1.32
• Dunkerton 1.41
• Farmer 1.44
• Beveridge 1.47
• Minett 1.48
• Koseki 1.51
• Rayner 1.53
• Boaden 1.57
• Richardson 1.59
• Glover 2.08
• Hayden 2.10
• Wilson, Meehan 2.13
• Easton 2.18
• Gough 2.33
• Roggenkamp 2.41
• Caudle 2.43
• O'Shanesy 2.58
• Lunney 3.02
• Moore 3.03
• Donoghue 3.13
• Reinders 3.23
• Goldsborough 4.00 maximum *

* Finlay and Goldsborough assisted at the scene of the fatal accident.

W21 – Mardi Gras Transport

Distance	Time allowed	First car due	Map
53.6 km	40 minutes	2.32 am Sunday Actual approx 3.50 am WST Depart 6.00 am CST	Click here

Apparently that Saturday night Kununurra held its annual Mardi Gras. The first car would have pulled into town just before 4 am after the transport in from the end of the Gibb River Road. Although the leaders were over an hour late into Kununurra, a scheduled hold ensured that they were back on time leaving Kununurra. Crews also changed to CST, winding their clocks forward 1.5 hours.

The Nalder Celica at Kununurra just after dawn
(Photo: Ian Richards)

A few crews dropped time into Kununurra, most notably Dunkerton who was grappling with the gravity feed fuel system and was 3 minutes late. Others late included Lockhart (6 minutes), Beveridge (9 minutes), Hilton (10 minutes) and O'Shanesy (over an hour).

W22 - Arid Tropical Transport

Distance	Time allowed	First car due	Map
839.9 km	8 hours 20 minutes	2.20 pm Sunday	Click here

The long drive to Darwin
(Photo: Ian Richards)

This was back when NT didn't have speed limits so the organisers had set an average just over 100 km/h for the long transport stage from Kununurra to Darwin. Much of the road from Kununurra to Katherine was single track bitumen. Failure to go completely off the road and stop when faced with an oncoming road train was likely to lead to problems, probably multiple punctures on the rough edges. The other hazard was wandering cattle, of which there were many.

Overlooking Victoria River
(Photo: Ian Richards)

The scenery is striking - rocky escarpments, lush river gorges and flat savannah plains dotted with huge ant hills. Crews needed to refuel in Katherine and further north between Pine Creek and Adelaide River the highway is somewhat twisty and slower. No-one had a whole lot of spare time once they got to Darwin.

The Watson/Harrowfield Peugeot enroute to Darwin
(Photo grabbed from the ABC Sport video)

Plenty of crews lost time on the transport. All the leaders were on time except Portman who was over an hour late after dealing with the broken oil line.
Upon arrival in Darwin crews were issued with a bulletin about the fatal accident and that the scheduled overnight stop was going to be extended for 2 hours with the first car out of impound on Monday morning at 5.00 am. At least the leading crews got a rest of up to 12 hours, but surely much less for the late runners. Even with the holds to try to compress the field, it would have been after midnight when the last cars arrived in Darwin within their late time limit.

Next: Back to Division W Summary