1973 Australian Rally Championship

1973 ARC winners Peter Lang and Warwick Smith in the HDT XU-1 Torana

The 1973 Australian Rally Championship was a series of six rallying events held across Australia. It was the sixth season in the history of the competition.

Peter Lang and navigator Warwick Smith in the Holden Torana GTR XU-1 were the winners of the 1973 Championship.

Season review

The sixth Australian Rally Championship was decided over six events, staged across the Eastern States of Australia with two events each in New South Wales and Victoria and one each in Queensland and South Australia.[1] The series saw more domination from the Holden Torana GTR XU-1's which won all six rounds, three wins for Peter Lang/Warwick Smith, two wins for Colin Bond/George Shepheard and one win for Steward McLeod/Adrian Mortimer. Lang and Smith managed high placings in the events that they didn't win and thus convincingly took out the 1973 championship.

The Rallies

The six events of the 1973 season were as follows.[2][3]

Round Rally Date
1 Uniroyal Southern Rally (SA) 10/11 March 1973
2 Classic Rally (VIC) 24/25 March 1973
3 Bunbury Curran (NSW) 14/15 April 1973
4 Bega Valley Rally (NSW) 2–4 June 1973
5 Warana Rally (QLD) 22/23 September 1973
6 Alpine Rally (VIC) 8/9 December 1973

Round One – Uniroyal Southern 500 Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Torana GTR XU-1 68
2 Dean Rainsford Graham West Citroen GS 78
3 Tony Roberts Jeff Beaumont Peugeot 504 79
4 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 87
5 Bob Holden Roger Bonhomme Torana GTR XU-1 100
6 Frank Kilfoyle Mike Osborne Datsun 240Z 107

Round Two – Classic Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 79
2 Peter Lang Warwick Smith Torana GTR XU-1 96
3 Tony Roberts Jeff Beaumont Peugeot 504 112
4 Ed Mulligan Mike Batten Mazda RX-2 Coupe 119
5 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Torana GTR XU-1 135
6 Bruce Hodgson Fred Gocentas Ford XA Falcon GTHO n/a

Round Three – Bunbury Curran Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Peter Lang Warwick Smith Torana GTR XU-1 24
=2 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 38
=2 Frank Kilfoyle Mike Osborne Datsun 240Z 38
4 Tony Roberts Jeff Beaumont Peugeot 504 53
5 Bruce Hodgson Fred Gocentas Ford XA Falcon GTHO 65
6 Wal Glass R Smith Holden HR 75

Round Four – Bega Valley Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Peter Lang Warwick Smith Torana GTR XU-1 79
2 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 84
3 Ed Mulligan Mike Batten Mazda RX-2 Coupe 85
4 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Torana GTR XU-1 97
5 Roy Denny Richard Denny Triumph 2.5 PI 181
6 Wal Glass R Smith Holden HR n/a

Round Five – Warana Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 40
2 Ed Mulligan Mike Batten Mazda RX-2 Coupe 61
3 John Shera Lloyd Meller Mazda 1300 104
4 Peter Lang Warwick Smith Torana GTR XU-1 106
5 Bryan Evans Barry Lake Datsun 240Z 115
6 Jim Reddiex Moss Pollack Citroen GS 168

Round Six – Golden Alpine Rally

Note that Kilfoyle and Osborne won this event outright in a works Datsun 180B SSS but were ineligible for ARC points.

Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Peter Lang Warwick Smith Torana GTR XU-1 118
2 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Torana GTR XU-1 132
3 Bruce Hodgson Fred Gocentas Ford XA Falcon GTHO 147
4 Ed Mulligan Mike Batten Mazda RX-2 Coupe 156
5 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 744
6 Roy Denny Richard Denny Triumph 2.5 PI 776

1973 Drivers and Navigators Championships

Final pointscore for 1973 is as follows.[1][3]

Peter Lang – Champion Driver 1973
Position Driver Car Points
1 Peter Lang Torana GTR XU-1 36
2 Colin Bond Torana GTR XU-1 29
3 Stewart McLeod Torana GTR XU-1 25
4 Ed Mulligan Mazda RX-2 Coupe 16
5 Tony Roberts Peugeot 504 & Saab 11
6 Bruce Hodgson Falcon GT 7
=7 Dean Rainsford Citroen GS 6
=7 Frank Kilfoyle Datsun 240Z 6
9 John Shera Mazda 1300 4
10 Bryan Evans Datsun 240Z 2

Warwick Smith – Champion Navigator 1973
Position Navigator Car Points
1 Warwick Smith Torana GTR XU-1 36
2 George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 29
3 Adrian Mortimer Torana GTR XU-1 25
4 Mike Batten Mazda RX-2 Coupe 16
5 Jeff Beaumont Peugeot 504 & Saab 11
6 Fred Gocentas Falcon GT 7
=7 Grahame West Citroen GS 6
=7 Mike Osborne Datsun 240Z 6
9 Lloyd Meller Mazda 1300 4
10 Barry Lake Datsun 240Z 2

References
  1. "Bega Valley Rally website". Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  2. "Bega Valley Rally". Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  3. Australian Competition Yearbook 1974
  • Results of Snowy Mountains Rally and ARC results.
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