The 1978 Australian Rally Championship

Australian Rally Championship

The Australian Rally Championship is a 6 Round National motorsport Championship run in forested countryside throughout Australia.-Current Competition:...

was a series of six rallying

Rallying

Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...

 events held across Australia. It was the eleventh season in the history of the competition.

Greg Carr and navigator Fred Gocentas in the Ford Escort RS1800 won the 1978 Championship, finally breaking the dominance of the Datsuns for the past three years.

Season review

The eleventh Australian Rally Championship was held over six events across Australia, the season consisting of two events for New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and one event each for Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 and West Australia. The 1978 season was again a closely fought battle which resulted in a tie at the finish of the last event of the season between the Datsun of Dunkerton and the Escort of Carr. However the championship was awarded to Carr on a countback as he had three wins to Dunkerton's one.

The Rallies

The six events of the 1978 season were as follows.

Round	Rally	Date
1	Rally of the West (WA)
2	Lutwyche Village Rally (QLD)
3	Donlee Rally (NSW)
4	Bega Valley Rally (NSW) Bega Valley Rally The Bega Valley Rally is one of the main car rallies held in Australia and has a history dating from the 1960s when it evolved from the Snowy Mountains Rally. It was centred in the New South Wales town of Bega since 1973 and used roads and forestry tracks in the Southern NSW/Victorian Border...
5	Endrust Forest Rally (SA)
6	Marchal Rally (VIC)

Round Four - Bega Valley Rally

Bega Valley Rally

The Bega Valley Rally is one of the main car rallies held in Australia and has a history dating from the 1960s when it evolved from the Snowy Mountains Rally. It was centred in the New South Wales town of Bega since 1973 and used roads and forestry tracks in the Southern NSW/Victorian Border...

Position	Driver	Navigator	Car	Points
1	Greg Carr	Fred Gocentas	Ford Escort RS1800	40
2	Ross Dunkerton Ross Dunkerton Ross Dunkerton is considered Australia's most successful rally driver to date, originating in Perth, Western Australia. He was previously a councillor for the Town of Bassendean, but moved with his family to Cairns in Far North Queensland in late 2007.Ross is married to his wife Lisa has two...	Jeff Beaumont	Datsun 710 Coupe	42
3	Colin Bond Colin Bond Colin John Bond is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team...	John Dawson-Damer	Ford Escort RS2000	54
4	Geoff Portman	Ross Runnalls	Datsun 1600 Datsun 510 The Datsun 510 was a series of the Datsun Bluebird sold from 1968 to 1974, and offered outside the U.S. and Canada as the Datsun 1600. According to AutoWeek's G.D...	60
5	Murray Coote	Brain Marsden	Datsun 120Y	61
6	Ed Mulligan	M. Rebecchi	Datsun 1600 Datsun 510 The Datsun 510 was a series of the Datsun Bluebird sold from 1968 to 1974, and offered outside the U.S. and Canada as the Datsun 1600. According to AutoWeek's G.D...	74

Greg Carr - Champion Driver 1978

Position	Driver	Car	Points
1	Greg Carr	Ford Escort RS1800
2	Ross Dunkerton Ross Dunkerton Ross Dunkerton is considered Australia's most successful rally driver to date, originating in Perth, Western Australia. He was previously a councillor for the Town of Bassendean, but moved with his family to Cairns in Far North Queensland in late 2007.Ross is married to his wife Lisa has two...	Datsun 710 Coupe
3	Colin Bond Colin Bond Colin John Bond is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team...
4	George Fury George Fury George Fury is a retired Australian rally and racing car driver. For the majority of his career Fury was associated with Nissan, twice winning the Australian Rally Championship, and twice runner up in the Australian Touring Car Championship.-Rallying:Born in Hungary, Fury rose to prominence during...
5	Clive Slater
6	Geoff Portman	Datsun 1600 Datsun 510 The Datsun 510 was a series of the Datsun Bluebird sold from 1968 to 1974, and offered outside the U.S. and Canada as the Datsun 1600. According to AutoWeek's G.D...

Fred Gocentas - Champion Navigator 1978

Position	Navigator	Car	Points
1	John Dawson-Damer	Ford Escort RS2000
2	Fred Gocentas	Ford Escort RS1800
3	Jeff Beaumont	Datsun 710 Coupe
4	Monty Suffern
5	Steve Halloran
6	Ross Runnalls

External Links

• http://www.begavalleyrally.com.au/history/ Results of Snowy Mountains Rally and ARC results.