1972 Dulux Rally

[Zedrally]

Have recieved some new information about this event from the Clerk of Course, Tom Snooks. So there is no confusion with other threads, I have created this new one.

The Datsun 240Z finished fourth outright. it was Car no 3

1. Bond/Shepheard XUI

2. Brock/Kilfoyle XUI

3. Mcleod/Mortimer XUI

4. Herrmann/Bonhomme

The car was entered by Nissan Motor Co (Aust) Pty Ltd. Another vehicle entered was a 180BSSS for John Roxburgh/Mike Mitchell. This finished 9th. These were the only Datsuns entered.

At Winron Raceway Herrmann kept getting in the way of Jon Leighton (Mini), blaming fuel surge. Leighton nearly crashed into Herrmann a couple of times and in the pits Leighton smacked Herrmann in the head. At the subsequent Stewards hearing Leighton was fined $100. The incident was quite famous in its time.

Bonhomme in the meantime drove the car around the circuit, had no fuel surge problems and put up a respectable lap time.

I find it surprising that Nissan only sent out one zed for this event, perhaps it was a fact finding mission for the assult on the 73 Southern Cross Rally?

MOM

[HS30-H]

Hi Mike,

That's great new info. Thanks for posting it.

Poor Herrmann getting a smack around the head made me chuckle. I bet he *knew* he was in Australia after that .......

Mind you, he was no slouch as a driver. His 'excuse' of fuel problems may well have been true; that car was running on the new Nissan electronically controlled injection system, which was still suffering from niggles and glitches under rally conditions. This could well have been an intermittent problem, making Herrmann look bad when Bonhomme took the car out with no reported problems.

He probably never even knew Leighton was behind him. Most of his rear view mirror would have been filled with a pair of spare wheels and the intercom box!

Do you have a date for the event? How long before the Southern Cross was it? I thought it took place after the Southern Cross, not before ( ? ).

Cheers,

Alan T.

Edit: Ah, I see what you mean - a fact-finder before the '73 Southern Cross, rather than before the '72 Southern Cross.

I think it would be more likely that - with the car available after the '72 'Cross, Datsun Australia Pty willing ( and happy for publicity / eager to assist in servicing duties and logistics ) and Nissan's competition dept. happy to loan the car - that it was done as a one-off. This kind of thing happened quite often in other countries. Mehta and Fall in particular were often loaned cars to do smaller events with.

That's how a lot of them got written off :stupid:

[Zedrally]

Tom has informed me that the date was 9-18 November, I assume that was 1972. I'm also assuming the '73 Southern Cross would have run around March/April 74, in which case this car would have been a survellence car sent out before hand.

Unfortunately, this is as much as he can recall.

At least it plugs up one more hole...

MOM