I haven’t posted one of these for a while so here goes.

Back in the early 1970’s there was a rally held at Condobolin in central NSW. It was a 24 hour event that started at Condo and went in a big loop around the central west - north to Nyngan, west to Cobar, south to West Wyalong – and back to Condo. It was run by the Rotary Club – no Brett, not the Mazda Rotary club but the service club.

Any way in 1973 we took the Bellett out there to compete. Wayne and I had competed the previous year and had some idea of what to expect. The rally ran many of its competitive sections through farms (mostly grazing properties), using farm tracks. This meant that there were lots of gates. So instead of just the two of us, we took a mate who rallied his own car in Canberra – Ron. The idea was that Ron would sit in the back opening and shutting gates. This would save us time (over the navigator – me – doing it, and would also provide a relief driver as it was a 24 hour event. We also had another mate come up there with his ute as service crew.

While 1972 had been dry and dusty, in 1973 it rained. If you’ve ever been out that way you know that when water hits unmade dirt tracks the clay becomes slippery – very slippery. We had no fancy diff or suspension set up – just some wintertread tryes. Stock Belletts are sideways cars on dirt at the best of times but this was just hilarious – the only time it was straight was in the nanosecond between the left hand opposite lock slide and the right hand opposite lock slide. We had so much wheelspin that the Tripmaster was reading virtually double the route instruction distance between turns. I zeroed it at every junction just to be able to keep a reasonable handle on intermediate distances. Using less throttle was no help because once those tyres had slicked up with clay you got wheelpsin no matter what.

Gate-meister Ron soon worked a system out. As soon as I called “Gate” he would have his seat belt off. Then as Wayne slowed for it Ron would have the door open, and be out as we were stopping. We’d then drive through and wait. He’d shut the gate, race back to the car, get in and yell “GO”. The first couple of times, after getting back in and yelling “GO” he had time to put his seat belt on and light a smoke before the Bellett actually overcame the wheelspin and started moving. So he started yelling out “Go” as he was getting in. Then as he reached the car. Then as he was still three metres form the car. This worked great until one gate where there was traction. He didn’t quite make it in – one hand on the roof gutter, the other on the door, one foot inside, the other running alongside as the Bellett pulled away. After that he started checking out traction conditions at each gate.

This fun continued throughout the first division – at the end of which we were doing quite well – in the top 10. No navigation stuff ups, some good driving and gate management had got us there. Unfortunately the Bellett broke something (can’t remember what but it needed welding) and also started overheating. At the service point we got Service-crew-Paul busy with the welding while we investigated the overheating. That turned out to be a blown headgasket which put paid to us – even if we had carried a spare, changing it would have put us out of the time limit. So while Paul continued to weld the rest of us (and another crew who had pulled out) started to have a yarn. Now Paul was a nice bloke but was sometimes a bit easily distracted. And Wayne was an expressive bloke prone to illustrating his stories with expansive gestures and movement. And so it came to pass that while Paul was talking to someone he had his flaming oxy torch pointing away from where he was looking. And Wayne backed into the zone where the torch was flaming, conveniently setting fire to his rally jacket. Talk about Laugh! Well all of us except Wayne did.

Cheers, Vic

A PRICELESS STORY WELL TOLD I CAN JUST SEE THAT OXY TORCH I THOUGHT IT WAS LEADING TO BE HIS BUM THAT GOT THE HOT TIP CHEERS DAVO

you must have some more ripper stories like that! love the older race/rally stories.

Good onya, Vic. Great life experience. Thanks for shareing it with us.
And it brings a memory of a day trip a mate & I made from western Sydney through Janolan Caves, Oberon, Bathurst & home. (1976) The road from the caves to Oberon was wet clay, with snow patches on the sides. It's true about not being able to back off - we just slipped more slowly. So it was continual opposite locking as we snaked along, bet yeah, much fun. Didn't pass another car on that section. Great thing about rear drive - you still have steering. A front driver would soon be in the ditch!
Nice - thanks for bringin it back.
Cheers, Matt.

Great story Vic, brings back memories of some of our Club events in the 70's, including Events like Rally Cross.
You should come to Gulgong this weekend, you would make a great Guest speaker!!