Rally Drivers Start Last—And Toughest—Stretch

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31862, 14 December 1968, Page 15

Rally Drivers Start Last— And Toughest—Stretch

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright*

PERTH. Rally drivers left in the London-to-Sydney rally and their battered cars were swamped by thousands of spectators and a hoard of officials when the liner Chusan docked at Fremantle yesterday.

The 72 surviving i teams from the hectic European and Asian ! section of the rally— I from London to Bom- ! bay—were apprehensive as they faced the toughest stretch of the trial, a 3500-mile haul across Australia’s desert, bushland and mountain ranges. Today, when they start the final leg from Perth, the drivers have the prospect of (quagmire conditions for the

(first guelling lap across the Nullabor Plains, caused by a sudden downpour. I Aerial surveys of the route (have uncovered a further (hazard. Mobs of kangaroos, (always a menace to the Ausitralian motorist, are roaming the area through which the cars will travel on their first night. Many of the rally cars are equipped with heavy kangaroo guards. Yesterday, customs and quarantine officials began the task of clearing all the cars, including a compulsory steam i clean. Police were out in } force to check the cars for f mechanical defects. s Thousands of well-wishers

thronging the wharf hampered unloading operations as cranes lifted the cars from the deck of the Chusan. The first of the entrants is due at the Warwick Farm motor-race circuit, in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon. Although the British team led by R. Clark in a Ford Lotus Cortina holds a handy lead, with only 11 points lost, several veteran Australian drivers, including H. Firth (29 points down) in a Ford Falcon G.T., are confident of making up the leeway in the familiar conditions. The teams will thread their way across the continent through outback mining ghost

towns, across the barren Nullabor Plains skirting southern Australia, then inland through the mineral boom city of Broken Hill and on to Sydney They face two tough mountain stretches—the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and the snow country of Omeo in Victoria. The teams will be racing against the clock to reach check points within the time limit allowed. Several Australian rally veterans have predicted that in some stretches it will be impossible to average the required speeds. The cars will leave Perth at three-minute intervals.