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1972 Australian Rally Championship

The 1972 Australian Rally Championship was a series of six rallying events held across Australia. It was the fifth season in the history of the competition.

Colin Bond and navigator George Shepheard won the Championship for the second year in a row in the Holden Dealer Team Torana GTR XU-1 .

Season review

After a late challenge to the HDT Toranas at the 1971 Southern Cross Rally, the works Mitsubishi Galants were expected to do well in the 1972 Australian Rally Championship and pose a major threat to Harry Firth's HDT domination of the series. However it was not to be, as the cars were poorly backed up and suffered from various incidents which cost them the chance of any outright wins. The HDT LJ Torana XU-1's won five of the six rounds, Mitsubishi's best finishes were a second place in the Alpine (for Doug Stewart and Dave Johnson) and thirds in the Warana (Doug Stewart and Dave Johnson) and Snowy Mountains rallies (Doug Chivas and Peter Meyer).

Another major challenge was expected from Renault. Their Renault R8 Gordinis had dominated the 1970 season and the new R12 Gordinis were faster and the team was hoping this would ensure some success for 1972. Tom Barr-Smith was second in the Walkerville 500, and Bob Watson managed a third in the Akademos, but other than that it was a disappointing season.

Colin Bond and George Shepheard dominated the championship, winning three rounds together and a fourth for Shepheard when he navigated for Frank Kilfoyle in the final round, The Alpine.

The Rallies

The 1972 season featured six events, two each in New South Wales and Victoria; and one each for Queensland and South Australia.

Round	Rally	Date	1	2	3	4	5	6
Bunbury Curran (NSW)	16–17 April
Akademos Rally (VIC)	27–28 May
Snowy Mountains Rally (NSW)	10–12 June
Warana Rally (QLD)	23–24 September
Rothmans Walkerville 500 (SA)	28–29 October
Alpine Rally (VIC)	25–26 November

Round One – Bunbury Curran – 16–17 April 1972

310 miles, 54 starters, 39 finishers

Position	Driver	Navigator	Car
Colin Bond	George Shepheard	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	25
Richard Harris	Graham Lockie	Mazda Capella RE	36
Doug Stewart	Dave Johnson	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	38
Stewart McLeod	Jack Lock	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	43
Peter Lang	Ed O'Cleary	Datsun 1600	48
Paul Older	Brian McElhinney	BMW 2002	51
Brian West	Gary Hartnett	Mini Clubman GT	54
Grahame Elliott	Fred Gocentas	Datsun 1600	57
Brian Hilton	Barry Lake	Peugeot 504	59
Peter Robertson	Chris Jessup	Ford Escort Twin Cam	62

Round Two – Akademos Rally – 27–28 May 1972

320 miles, 38 starters, 23 finishers

Position	Driver	Navigator	Car
Frank Kilfoyle	Roger Bonhomme	Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1	31
Colin Bond	George Shepheard	Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1	32
Bob Watson	Geoff Thomas	Renault 12 Gordini	34
Barry Ferguson	Warwick Smith	Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1	37
George Fury	Monty Suffern	Ford Cortina GT	38
Mike Fitzgerald	Geoff Schmidt	Peugeot 404	46
Peter Janson	Mike Mitchell	Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1	66
John Dixon	Rex Muldoon	Ford Escort	74
Mal McPherson	Jeff Beaumont	Renault 12 Gordini	75
Evan Green	Roy Denny	Ford Escort Twin Cam	75

Round Three – [[Bega Valley Rally|Snowy Mountains Rally]] – 10–12 June 1972

600 miles, 48 starters, 40 finishers

Position	Driver	Navigator	Car
Colin Bond	George Shepheard	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	58
Frank Kilfoyle	Roger Bonhomme	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	60
Stewart McLeod	Adrian Mortimer	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	65
Doug Chivas	Peter Meyer	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	65
Doug Stewart	Dave Johnson	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	70
Peter Lang	Ed O'Clery	Datsun 1600	71
Barry Ferguson	Warwick Smith	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	88
Bruce Collier	Lindsay Adcock	Renault 12 Gordini	92
Mark Sheridan	Richard McMaster	Volvo 142S	96
Arthur Jackson	Peter Godden	Datsun 1600	97

Round Four – Warana Rally – 23–24 September 1972

450 miles

Position	Driver	Navigator	Car
Colin Bond	George Shepheard	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	22
Frank Kilfoyle	Mike Osborne	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	26
Doug Stewart	Dave Johnson	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	33
Bob Riley	Brian Gemmell	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	37
Mike Chapman	Alan Lawson	Holden HK V8	40
Stewart McLeod	Adrian Mortimer	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	41
Ian Riedel	Ray Wood	Holden Monaro 350	45
Evan Green	Roy Denny	Ford Escort Twin Cam	50
Charlie Lund	Brian McCloy	Mazda RX-3	52
Doug Chivas	Peter Meyer	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	58

Round Five – Rothmans Walkerville 500 – 28–29 October 1972

320 miles

Position	Driver	Navigator	Car
John Taylor	Graham West	Austin Kimberley	20
Tom Barr-Smith	Rob Hunt	Renault 12 Gordini	26
Gary Chapman	Norm Vincent	Mazda RX-3	41
Tony Pennell	Jack Lock	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	42
Keith Intveld	Ian Hese	Citroen	49
Chuck Mora	Colin Abbey	Renault 16TS	56

Round Six – Alpine Rally – 25–26 November 1972

600 miles

Position	Driver	Navigator	Car
Frank Kilfoyle	George Shepheard	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	62
Doug Stewart	Dave Johnson	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	83
Peter Janson	Mike Prendergast	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	85
Doug Chivas	Peter Meyer	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	100
Bob Riley	Adrian van Loon	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	103
Helmut Goetz	Mike Mitchell	Datsun 1600 SSS	111
Gil Davis	Peter Haas	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	111
Sue Ransom	Christine Cole	Ford Escort Twin Cam	117
Len Shaw	Jim McAuliffe	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	124
Warwick Smith	Tony Walsham	Renault Dauphine	153

1972 Drivers and Navigators Championships

Final pointscore for 1972 is as follows.

Colin Bond – Champion Driver 1972

Position	Driver	Car
Colin Bond	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	33
Frank Kilfoyle	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	30
Doug Stewart	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	16
John Taylor	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	9
Stewart McLeod	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	8
Doug Chivas	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	7

George Shepheard – Champion Navigator 1972

Position	Navigator	Car
George Shepheard	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	42
Dave Johnson	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	16
Roger Bonhomme	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	15
Graham West	Austin Kimberley	9
Peter Meyer	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	7
Rob Hunt	Renault 12 Gordini	6
Jack Lock	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	6
Graham Lockie	Mazda Capella	6
Mike Mitchell	Mitsubishi Galant 1600	6
Mike Osborne	Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1	6

References

Australian Motoring Yearbook 1973
Australian Motoring Yearbook 1973
Australian Motoring Yearbook 1973

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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