A young Nick Lenthall watched the first London-Sydney marathon circus roll through South Australia, and went back over 50 years later to see the re-run
It’s 4.00am and I’m standing on a lonely gravel road near Mt Arden outside of Quorn, 300 kilometres North of Adelaide in the Flinders Ranges. It’s December 15, 1968, the eve of my 13th Birthday and my dad has driven us here in our Mk II Cortina to see the world’s best race and rally drivers at speed on what is one of the final days of the London to Sydney Marathon, the biggest event of its kind the world has ever seen.
The crews have come from all over the world, rally drivers like Roger Clark, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk, Le Mans Winner Lucien Bianchi, as well as Australia’s best and the 1200-strong population of Quorn has more than doubled for the event.
Harry Firth’s ’67 GT and Mullers ’69 Beetle
I hadn’t grasped at the time the madness I was watching. 5660 kilometres in three days. Do you want me to say that again? Frankly, it’s incomprehensible, even by today’s standards of hi-tech machinery. Neither did I realize that I was watching a pivotal event, an event that would affect the lives of so many motorsport enthusiasts.
A few years later at Flinders Uni, I met some blokes who had also been to Quorn to watch the event. We became friends and within a year we were crewing on another student’s rally car. Before long two of us were contesting the local championship. We were an example of how much the experience had affected those who witnessed it. One of those blokes – Ed Ordynski – went on to become Australian Rally Champion. It was therefore no surprise when I travelled to Quorn again this year for the Perth to Sydney Marathon to find so many others who had been directly impacted by that 1968 experience.
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John Hamilton’s Hillman Hunter
The 1968 London to Sydney Rally was born out of a boozy lunch with a few Fleet Street newspaper chiefs who wanted to somehow raise the profile of England’s flagging Motor industry. The response to entries was overwhelming. So many countries wanted to shine on the world stage. Australia was no exception fielding Holden and Ford Factory teams and the Daily Telegraph newspaper joined in as Co-Sponsor. Aside from Great Britain, there were more Australian drivers than any other competing nation. Ford also more than tripled the numbers of any other entrant.
The 2022 Perth to Sydney Marathon Celebration was a little more socially responsible by comparison. Let’s take 10 days to do the 5600 km and take in as many of the original stages as we can, weather permitting. We can stop at the end of each day for a feed and a kip and revert to the tarmac if it’s too wet. There was a real emphasis on re-living the 1968 experience with original stages and control locations. Sounds simple enough but Covid had already caused the postponement of the event once, and unusual weather events have become all too common in Australia this year.
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The Zed of Pickering and Boddy
When I met the crews at the Port Augusta Control on November 1, they had already covered around 2500km from Perth over some of the best/worst open road gravel stages you could pick. Yes, they were wet but that’s part of the attraction as Ford Escort Driver Greg Keam told me, “We had a 200-kilometre stage up to the Nullarbor Roadhouse, the car was sideways the entire time.” When asked, “What were the best moments so far?” he simply replied “Every bit of it.”
Originally built by Bathurst Winner Bob Holden for the Peking to Paris in the late 70s though not used, Greg’s Escort hadn’t turned a wheel since 2004. “Bob Used it for Club Rallies and the East Coast Classic and then persuaded us to do this one.” The Escort spec has been kept simple and reliable, even retaining its mechanical fuel pump and points distributor. The floor has been reinforced with fibreglass and the roll cage is part of the chassis. Greg joked “it’s the heaviest Escort in Australia”.
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The Taylor Copeland Citroen DS 21
Eight of the original 1968 cars were entered for this year, one being the XT Falcon GT driven by Lawrie, Zane, and Shannon Beacham. Originally prepped by Harry Firth for owner Rex Lunn, the XT GT got as far as Erzincan in Turkey before gearbox issues ended its run in the original marathon. Long-term Ford Works driver Bruce Hodgson later commented that “prolonged stretches at over 100mph caused oil starvation in the usually reliable top loader gearbox”. Lawrie purchased the car in the 80s to put in a museum but couldn’t resist entering the 1993 re-run. Lawrie told me, “When the 1968 event was on I was at school and to me, it was the most exciting thing in the world.” His comment echoed the sentiments of so many of the competitors.
The 240 Z of Mark Pickering and Dave Boddy was built in 1995 for Ross Dunkerton and Harry Manson to contest the London to Mexico, finishing second. It runs a 2.8 Litre Engine with Triple Webers, a 5-speed dog box, Murray Coote Suspension, and a, 110L Bladder fuel tank. “It did London to Sydney and Panama Alaska,” Mark told me “I bought it in 2013, and we did the 2014 Sydney to London and came third and then 2016 Peking to Paris and won that”. Mark and Dave even drove their car from New South Wales to Perth to start the 2022 event.
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Tony Falls Austin Works Austin 1800
On the more intriguing side is the 1939 Chevrolet coupe of Bruce Power and Jill Robilliard, affectionately named Red Dog. Bruce imported the car from the States as a hot rod and prepared it for the 2016 Peking to Paris event. “We Broke the gearbox in Russia…completing the next 13,000ks without third gear. We were the fifth-placed pre-war car” Bruce told me. Red Dog runs a 261 cubic inch Chevrolet Blue Flame engine with twin down draught Webers coupled to a Tremec TKO gearbox and Hi-Lux Rear axle. The brake drums are 60 series Land Cruiser. Red Dog is also well-travelled, having visited Pikes Peak and even the Bonneville speed trials.
When it comes to Rally icons, few cars will turn heads like a Powder Blue Hillman Hunter. Owner of the sister car to Cowan’s rally winner, John Hamilton had driven from Tasmania to join his son in Port Augusta and traverse the remaining stages through the Flinders Ranges and on to Sydney. A true survivor, John’s restored car even beat Cowan home in the 1993 London to Sydney event.
Keith Newby, (left) and the omnipresent Rally Marshall June Bunker Marratt (right)
The Hamilton Hunter spells patina in large letters and if being mimicked is the price of fame, the tribute car of Paul Anderson and Paul Saigar (featured recently in Unique Cars) is a doppelganger for the real thing. The two Pauls do the entire tour course.
Speaking of paying homage, class act Lucien Bianchi all but won the 1968 event until a crash with a spectator’s car ruled him out. The story goes that as they pulled Bianchi from the wreck, he kept shouting, “I must get to Sydney!” The beautiful Citroen DS 21 of Mark Taylor and Graham Copeland honours Bianchi and Ogier’s remarkable assault. It’s a high-level build loaded with bespoke parts. Bianchi had averaged 94mph across the Nullarbor and was some hours ahead of the pack prior to the accident.
Car 74 was in the original London to Sydney Marathon. The Beacham Boys from Hervey Bay
My last task for the day was to drive the 40 kilometres of now tarmac Pichi Richi Pass and roll into the Quorn control like those drivers had done some 53 years before. Trevor Garde, who manned the control in 1968, was back for the occasion as was Keith Newby who had gone for the passage control at Mt Arden. Trevor’s recollection was still very clear. “It was dark, Roger Clark came in. The book was dropped on the table, your time please, and he was gone. We are told he left Pointon’s Garage in Port Augusta 16 minutes earlier…He had averaged 100mph through the Pichi Richi Pass.”
On 16 December, 1968, my dad let me drive the Cortina on a straight stretch of gravel on our way home for my 13th birthday. My future was now clear. I’m going to be a rally driver.
There are a couple of rallying feats that I still find hard to top. One is the late Stirling Moss’s epic Mille Miglia win at an average speed of 96mph. The other is crossing five thousand kilometres of Australia’s most desolate and unforgiving outback roads in three days in 1960s machinery. Make no mistake. It was a superhuman effort.
Special thanks go to Event Director Laurie Mason, Ron Cooper, John Cooper, and Gerry Bashford, for their help in piecing all these ingredients together. Thanks also to the Port Augusta Vehicle Restorers club who hosted the drivers and crews at their club rooms control and provided a delightful lunch for all of us.
From Unique Cars #477, April 2023