Rally winner beat cold

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 3

Rally winner beat cold

From

JOHN FRIDD

in Timaru

Southland farmers are accustomed to bad. weather, so Barry Robinson of Wyndham had no problem winning the South Canterbury Spring Rally on Saturday.

The fierce southerly airstream threw snow, sleet, and rain at the 89 crews in the 300 km event, but Robinson handled it all with his customary calmness and took his Chevette 2.3 to a imin 29s win over fellow Southlander. Inky Tulloch (Mataura, Datsun Stanza 2.0). "Turbo" Trev Parmenter, of Timaru, kept up the local end by finishing third in his turbocharged Datsun 120 Y after the more fancied Carl Rabbidge rolled his new Datsun Stanza on the snowy Meyers Pass.

Rabbidge was able to rejoin the rally, but lost about 3*2 minutes and any chance of winning. He finished the

Priest Printers event in seventh place. The Meyers Pass special stage to Hakataramea and the return stage through the Elephant Hill region proved costly for many drivers, but the next special stage, near Waihaorunga. was even worse.

On one corner alone. 15 cars slid off the slippery sealed road, including the top Timaru driver, David Brown (Datsun 1600 V 8) and one of the top small-car drivers. Dave McCahon (Christchurch, Datsun 1200). Both returned to the road, but Andy Carruthers, of Christchurch. was not so lucky. He demolished his Mazda RX3. Another car which was virtually written off was the Viva 2.3 of Nathan Stewart, which rolled on the eighth special stage, slightly injuring his co-driver.

Trevor Crowe of Christchurch won the first special stage, near Waimate, in his Avenger VB. but had overrevved the motor on a long

straight in that stage and it blew two stages later.

Tulloch won the second stage to tie for the rally lead with Robinson and then the Datsun driver took the lead on special stage three, when he beat Robinson by 6s. However. Robinson cut that lead on the Meyers Pass stage, winning by 36s to take, a lead he was never to relinquish. The Southland farmer won stages five and six before Tulloch hauled back 5s on stage seven. Robinson was fastest on the next special stage and then had to hand this honour to Rabbidge, who was back in form after his earlier roll. However, the final two stages, in the ClaremontSutherlands area, went to Robinson.

David Brown was impressive while he had his meansounding Datsun V 8 going, but the motor lost oil pressure on stages one and six and he withdrew before it gave up completely.

There were 89 starters and

62 finishers. Results: Over all: B. Robinson (Wyndham. Chevette 2.3). -95 41min elapsed. 1: I. Tulloch (Mataura. Datsun Stanza 2.0). 97.10. 2: T. Parmenter (Timaru. Datsun 120 Y Turbo). 100.40. 3: G. Crawford (Gore. Mazda RX323). 101.39. 4: A. Grundy (Dunedin. Toyota Corolla). 102.31. 5; B. Reid (Christchurch. Mazda RX3). 102.42. 6: C. Rabbidge (Timaru. Datsun Stanza 2.0). 103.17. 7: L. Richards (Timaru. Datsun 1200 2.0). 104.16: 8; J. Campbell (Timaru. Datsun 1200). 104.58. 9; J. Sergei (Christchurch. Toyota Starlet 1300). 106.13. 10. Class A (0 to 1300 cu cm): Grundy 1. Campbell 2. Sergei 3.

Class B (1301 to 1600 cu cm): R. Robb (Timaru. Datsun 160 J). 109.34. 1: O. Varcoe (Escort 1600). 111.20. 2: A. Neill (Oamaru. Escort RS1600). 112.43. 3. Class C (Over 1600 cu cm): Robinson 1. Tulloch 2. Parmenter 3.

Class D (standard production) K. North (Dunedin. Mazda) 115.51. 1: B. Varcoe (Mazda) 120.30, 2; N. Smith (Mazda) 122.32. 3.