Citroen New Leader In London-Sydney Rally

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31864, 17 December 1968, Page 23

Citroen New Leader In London-Sydney Rally

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MENINDEE (New South Wales). R. Clark (Britain), in a patched-up Ford Lotus Cortina fought a bitter duel with the Le Mans winner, L. Bianchi, yesterday for the lead in the London-Sydney car marathon.

Bianchi’s British-entered Citroen D.S, 21 led the field with a total of 21 penalty points, only four points ahead of Clark at Mingary on the South Australian border.

The Belgian reached his ninth check-point with 25 minutes to spare, and has had time to spare at ail points so far on the Australian section of the rally.

Bianchi, who arrived at the Ceduna check-point more than two hours and a half ahead of schedule, said that although he had been driving at 110 miles an hour from Norseman to Ceduna—more than 700 miles—his car had not even got hot. Clark lost his over-all lead outside Quom, South Australia, when two valves burned out and he lost 14 minutes. This put him back to third place. He moved up to second two check-points later at Branchina, where the new leader, G. Staepalaere (West Germany), in a Ford 20 M.R.S., lost eight minutes. His 28 total penalty points placed him third. No Points Lost Bianchi is the only driver not to have lost prints on the rugged 3500-mile Australian stretch. He hit the front at Branchina. In fourth place was the Hillman Hunter of A. Cowan (Britain), with 32 points lost? The Finn, R. Aaltonen, in a B.M.C. 1800, dropped back to equal fifth with H. Firth (Australia), whose Ford Falcon G.T. has lost 34 points. In the twisting mountain roads of the Flinders Ranges, 16 miles outside Mingary, D. McKay’s Australian Holden G.T.S. rolled over and was badly damaged. No-one was hurt but the car was withdrawn from the rally.

The temperature was 100 degrees Fahrenheit as the cars crossed the treacherous Flinders Ranges and headed for Menindee. The 347-mile rough, winding road through the Flinders took its toll. Cars in trouble included; the leading Australian entry of E. Green, whose B.M.C. 1800 was virtually knocked out with a wrecked rear suspension after sharing fifth place.

Spare parts are being dropped to him by plane, but his points loss will put him out of the running. Officials predicted yesterday that scores of stragglers would be eliminated from the

rally within the next 24 hours as the distances between check-points shorten. Entrants are eliminated if they fail to reach two check-points within 12 hours of their schedule. Of the 72 cars to leave Perth, seven have now been

eliminated and many more have been heavily penalised for failing to reach checkpoints within the 12-hour limit. The Volvo 122 S of J. H. Latrobe (Britain) is causing concern. It failed to turn up at the second check-point. Marvel Loch, in Western Australia. A search along the desolate stretch to the first checkpoint at Youanmi revealed no trace of Latrobe’s car. Officials believe it may have

turned off the bush track after the driver was temporarily blinded by clouds of dust thrown up by the leading cars. Kangaroos, trees, and blinding dust have been the main hazards facing drivers. Bianchi said he had met no trouble with his car, but he had been lucky to miss kangaroos. “They are worse than rats in the Antwerp docks,” he said.

Kangaroo Trouble

Other drivers were not as lucky as Bianchi. At least a dozen cars hit kangaroos in Western Australia,- and at least as many had encounters with trees or tree stumps. The French driver,) J. L. Lemerle, climbed out of his battered Citroen at Norseman and said: “I have hit one kangaroo and one tree so far. 1 do not think I like Australian roads.” ’ t A British Royal Artillery Captain, D. Harrison (with one damaged tree to his credit) said: “It’s like driving over the tank range—great fun if you are used to it.” Another English driver, Captain F. Barker, said his Mercedes 280 S ploughed into a big red kangaroo at almost 90 m.p.h.

“We were about 100 miles out of Southern Cross when we saw the thing hopping beside the road. Then it pounced straight in front of us. We had no choice but to hit the kangaroo head on without even going for the brakes.”