Division N

Sydney to Melbourne

Crews departed Sydney early Friday evening for the overnight run to Albury where the event effectively finished at lunchtime on Saturday. After an overnight rest the cars headed down the highway for the ceremonial finish at the Melbourne Showgrounds at midday on Sunday, August 19th, 1979. The route is shown below.

The route comprised 3 special stages totalling 49.8 km, 4 trial stages totalling 206.1 km and 10 transport stages totalling 1,232.8 km for a total division distance of 1,488.7 km of which 17% was competitive. This was not only the shortest division but was also the one with the lowest proportion of competitive distance.

Detailed descriptions of the stages, conditions and stories are split into three parts:

Full route instructions are available here.

This was almost like a normal overnight rally with some great mountain stages in eastern Victoria and a very nice final special stage in the Stanely pine plantation near Beechworth. Brock simply needed to protect his 6 minute lead and the times reflected this - not super quick but quick enough to have Ferguson and Bell's measure, and besides, they were probably under team orders to hold position. There was a remote chance that Carr could pick up the 30 minutes needed to take Dunkerton's fourth place and while Carr was flying, he only gained 13 minutes on Dunks. Loader, Herrmann and Barth were separated by only about 20 minutes although the published scores in Sydney had Herrmann closer to Loader and Barth further behind. In the end, Herrmann gained enough time to be clear of Barth but did not catch the Lancer (even though the results published immediately after the event suggested that he had), despite some great times. Portman's car was failing and he was forced to skip sections, dropping from seventh to 22nd.

Full final results are shown here. Results on the division are shown below. 54 cars completed the division without missing a control although Heaton apparently did not complete the Tulloch Ard trial stage (N8). The summation of scores on Division N were all incorrect in part because the Oran Park times were still included.

  1. Carr/Morrow/Gocentas (Cortina) 8.15
  2. Mehta/Aaltonen/Lake (Commodore) 18.38
  3. Brock/Philip/Richards(Commodore) 20.21
  4. Dunkerton/McKay/Jones (Volvo 244) 21.11
  5. Herrmann/Rainsford (Porsche 911) 28.16
  6. Ferguson/Bell/Boddy (Commodore) 28.20
  7. Rowney/Wilson/Tyson (Datsun 180B) 30.41
  8. Nalder/Richards/Boyd (Celica) 38.17
  9. Loader/Hill/Neale (Lancer) 38.20
  10. Faulkner/de Vaus/Bateson (Peugeot 504) 39.18
  11. Fury/Bonhomme/Suffern (Cortina) 39.39
  12. Johnson/Vanderbyl (Volvo 242) 40.19
  13. Barth/Kushmaul (Porsche 924) 44.09
  14. Jackson/West/Jackson (Commodore) 45.41
  15. Watson/Harrowfield (Peugeot 504 Diesel) 54.22
  16. Colless/Johnston/McCoy (Datsun 1600) 58.34
  17. Lockhart/Dunstan/Finlayson (Commodore) 1.04.05
  18. Beveridge/Heaney/Jarman (Volvo 244) 1.04.32
  19. Giddings/Jones/Seaman (Datsun 200B) 1.08.56
  20. Hurrey/Geddes (Celica) 1.14.01
  21. Lance/Craft/Robinson (Commodore) 1.14.11
  22. Clarke/Davis/Burge (Datsun 180B) 1.15.27
  23. Goldsborough/Flanagan/Ground (Commodore) 1.15.43
  24. Roberts/Waterson/Carrol (Commodore) 1.19.41
  25. Stockley/O'Neill (Porsche 911E) 1.22.06
  26. Finlay/Sullivan/McLeod (Commodore) 1.22.19
  27. McCubbin/Kelly/Guyatt (Monaro GTS) 1.22.39
  28. Murray/D'Albora/Murray (Commodore) 1.27.47
  29. Boaden/Pritchard/Atkin (Mazda RX4) 1.34.02
  30. Glover/Burke/Hather (VW) 1.36.53
  31. Darby/Clark/Stewart (HR Holden) 1.38.11
  32. Taylor/Hunt (Rover 3500) 1.41.16
  33. Penny/Kennard/Brown (LH Torana) 1.43.39
  34. Neilson/Stewart/Tyre (HQ Holden) 1.45.47
  35. Lloyd/Crockenberg/Dick (Colt) 1.49.27
  36. Potter/Bain (Mazda RX3) 1.58.19
  37. Miettunen/Morgan/Suominen (Volvo 244) 2.02.51
  38. Gough/Hutton/Bishop (LJ Torana) 2.04.58
  39. Herdy/O'Kane/Gramenz (Peugeot 504) 2.08.59
  40. Farmer/Farmer/Fraser (Leyland P76) 2.10.35
  41. Meehan/Gifford/Gardiner (Monaro GTS) 2.15.10
  42. Turner/Donohue/Sparrow (Leyland P76) 2.18.41
  43. Mizel/Hall/Fricker/Mortimer (Chevy Blazer) 2.28.52
  44. Kahler/Partridge/Simeon (Mazda RX4) 2.35.31
  45. Boys/Vonthien (Ford F100) 2.43.39
  46. McDiarmid/Phegan/Travis (Datsun 180B SSS) 2.47.56
  47. Roggenkamp/Adair/Eakin (Escort) 2.50.50
  48. Davis/Eather/Toner (Datsun 180B) 2.52.33
  49. Birrell/Smith/Nixon (Renault 16TS) 2.57.10
  50. Ingerson/Wilson/MacCulloch (Peugeot 404) 2.59.21
  51. Foden/Baker/Young (Leyland P76) 3.02.16
  52. O'Donnell/Geissler/Gibson (LX Torana) 3.51.43
  53. Cafe/Gurney/Dawson (Mazda RX4) 4.14.23 (Results show more than an hour less)
  54. Heaton/Shepherd/Mann (HJ Holden Panel Van) 6.31.00 (missed stage N8)

Next: Final results

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