Motogard Rally round-up

Press, 25 September 1980, Page 19

Motogard Rally round-up

By

JOHN FRIDD

Timo Salonen must have had a little man sitting on his shoulder for the entire Motogard Rally. The quiet Finn got through the event without having one puncture in his Datsun 160 J, but only ran out the winner by 2 minutes 41 seconds from Walter Rohrl (West Germany). George Fury, the cheerful Australian, was stricken by four punctures in his identical Datsun, so it must have been Salonen’s tidier driving style which made the difference. 5? ❖

One of the funniest incidents seen during the rally was when Ingvar Carlsson, the press-on Swedish driver, got his big Mercedes 280 CE stuck in a mud-hole in the Golden Downs forest. His codriver, Claes Billstan, hopped out for a look, leaving his door open. A few seconds later Paul Adams, the top New Zealander, came roaring along in his Chevette and, not wanting to get stuck, screamed through the bog-hole on the right-hand side of the Mere, filling the inside of the car with muddy water. Martin Holmes, probably the world’s top rally journalist, thought it the funniest thing he had ever seen. It is extremely doubtful whether the big Mercedes

coupes will be seen again in New Zealand, even if the Motogard is again a round of the world championship next year, because of their unsuitability for our roads. However, the German car-making giant has a range of smaller cars in the pipeline and Martin Holmes feels that it may rally one of these soon. He says that Mercedes’ New Zealand experience would be useful, if it decided to bring one of the small cars here.

Judging by the comments of the top drivers and crews, the Motogard was well organised. However, most of the Scandinavians felt that the North Island roads provided a better test of driving skills, as they are twistier and have fewer long straights. I felt sorry for many spectators on the rally, as some had to walk kilometres to get to the start or end of special stages because of the parking problem in many places. Maybe next year some parking in farmers’ paddocks handy to vantage points could be organised, entry to be gained by paying a small fee, half of which could go to the fanner and half into a prize fund for New Zealand drivers?

Reporting an event like

the Motogard often poses big problems for journalists, mainly getting a story back to the office late at night from a remote country area. The night of the Airikkala crash I had arranged with a kind Russells Flat farmer to use the ‘phone in his nearby house to get my story through to “The Press.” Arriving at the house I knocked on the front door, and, receiving no reply, rushed around the back, through the kitchen door and started typing furiously on the kitchen table. When a sleepy young girl in a nightgown poked her head around the lounge to see what was happening I don’t know who got the biggest shock, her or me* We soon sorted things out

and the story got through in time.

Apologies Dept: In my final report on the rally I missed Bob Robb, of Timaru. He was heading for abont fifteenth place when he ran off the road in the Ashley Forest and lost a lot of time. However, Robb managed to get the McKenzie Motors Datsun back on the road and finish well into the twenties.

A bouquet to the traffic officers who followed the rally. The men in the Nelson area in particular helped greatly, getting cars parked off the road and sorting out traffic jams, instead of sitting around the comer with a radar out like most do in the North Island.