19 July 2009

1981 Castrol Rally

19 July 2009 | WanniAss

Following Mark Webber’s win in Germany last week, I pulled out my trusty 1981 Australian Motor Racing Yearbook to read about Alan Jones’s victory in Vegas.

It also had a nice write-up about the 1981 Castrol Rally, and with Willo’s recent post on the Mt Ginn speedway I was wondering if the motorsport people could shed some light on where the tarmac stages were held.

The Yearbook describes them as “undeveloped suburbs to the south of Canberra”. There’s some footage on youtube if it helps.

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TP 300012:49 am 21 Jul 09

Maybe we should start this up again? Overall Crescent in Casey is half tarmac, half dirt, loop around there, down Horse Park Drive, cross over into the Horse Park Drive extension & then a right into Moncreiff.

But then again the dirt tracks used out in the area that will become the Mologlo Valley might be streets with houses one day. I’ll then tell my grandkids “Back in the old days (2008) I use to race on this road & won every race.” Of course I didn’t but it’ll shock them.

Farrerneil10:37 pm 20 Jul 09

I have the memory that it was Fadden. The late Bob Lane recruited a few compadres from DoT [Ron Templeton and myself, at least] to assist the Motor Sport Club at various timing points over the weekend. I still have the T-shirt and some stickers. The lovely Anne Heaney will know – she was there.

Where is Fred G when you need him?

Holden Caulfield11:11 am 20 Jul 09

Superb footage, thanks for finding that!

YapYapYap11:49 pm 19 Jul 09

cranky said :

They had a couple of bike races at Macarthur. Spectating was great, as the circuit was in the natural amphitheatre, mainly using Jackie Howe Crescent.

I ran in a new motor in the race car in 1982, doing laps of this ‘circuit’. Not a soul for miles, so no consternation caused.

Fantastic planning by the Feds, to build serviced suburbs well before the land was required for building houses. Anathema to Sonic of course – no money in it!

Cranky, what in fact happened back then was that the Fraser Govt’s Razor Gang (headed by Phil Lynch) chopped the head/arms’legs off the public service and those suburbss with withheld from sale due to the ensuing economoc meltdown. It wasn’t what you’d call ‘planning’

Anna Key10:33 pm 19 Jul 09

And no-one made a comment about the “undeveloped suburbs to the south of Canberra”! I thought this would be shooting fish in a barrel to the northsiders.

WanniAss10:17 pm 19 Jul 09

willo said :

rotaries are a popular engine transplant in many speedway divs……they can be found in anything from datsun 1200
‘s to geminis

I think they were pretty popular in the 1600s. I recall a few Dazdas around in the mid 80s. The article in the yearbook said that they were running FIA rules so a lot of local cars weren’t legal. I presume this would exclude the rotary 1600s. But love those big slides of the RWD days. But thanks for the id on the location. Sounds like Tuggers was the place to be in the early 80s

vg10:14 pm 19 Jul 09

willo said :

alan jones the race driver…..not alan jones the homosexual footy coach….alan jones won a f1 grand prix…..not a rally

Same Alan Jones that coached a Grand Slam and Bledisloe win as well, but feel free to throw in something irrelevant.

I mean Robbie Deans won’t coach a Bledisloe win this year, didn’t last year, but thank Christ he’s straight

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy9:01 pm 19 Jul 09

Good call RoadRage77 – having only Ford and Holden has made the class a lot less entertaining than it used to be.

These days I’d rather watch production cars, at least there’s some reality in the racing.

willo8:42 pm 19 Jul 09

rotaries are a popular engine transplant in many speedway divs……they can be found in anything from datsun 1200
‘s to geminis

Roadrage778:34 pm 19 Jul 09

1600’s generally have 1600’s in them. Rotaries are usually found in old Mazdas. With regards to legality, the difficulty in classifying the engine sizes of rotaries precluded them from many classes of competition. People have put rotaries in everything from Bugs to Capris but I’ve always thought it sacrilegious do dump one in anything other than a Mazda. Alan Moffatt slew the Holden & Ford V8’s to win the 1983 touring car championship in a Mazda RX7 powered by a naturally aspirated 1.2L. The bogans didn’t like it and that was the last we ever saw of the Wankel engine in mainstream domestic motorsport. Now we’re supposed to get excited by a ridiculously homogenous group of V8 ‘Supercars’.

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