1974 Australian Rally Championship

1974 ARC winners Colin Bond and George Shepheard in the HDT Holden Torana GTR XU-1.
Stewart McLeod and Adrian Mortimer led the challenge from the Datsun 240Z's to take second place in the championship.
Third place went to West Australians Ross Dunkerton and John Large in the Datsun 240Z.

The 1974 Australian Rally Championship was a series of seven rallying events held across Australia. It was the seventh season in the history of the competition.

Colin Bond and navigator George Shepheard in the Holden Dealer Team Holden Torana GTR XU-1 were the winners of the 1974 Championship.

Season review

The seventh Australian Rally Championship was expanded to seven events now venturing to the West with the first ever round to be staged in Western Australia. This season consisted of two events in Victoria and one each in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia.[1] 1974 was to be the last year of domination from the Holden Torana GTR XU-1's. Bond and Shepheard had four wins and a second to win the championship, but had increasing opposition from the Datsun 240Z's of Stewart McLeod/Adrian Mortimer and Ross Dunkerton/John Large.

The Rallies

The seven events of the 1974 season were as follows.[2]

Round Rally Date
1 Semperit 1600 Rally (WA)
2 Akademos Rally (VIC)
3 Bega Valley Rally (NSW)
4 Uniroyal Southern Rally (SA)
5 Warana Rally (QLD)
6 Bunbury-Curran Rally (NSW)
7 Alpine Rally (VIC)

Round One – Semperit 1600
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Peter Lang George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 47
2 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 48
3 Bob Watson R van der Straaten Renault 16TS 54
4 Bob Riley Tom Snooks Mitsubishi Galant 57
5 Ross Dunkerton John Large Datsun 240Z 66
6 Dean Rainsford Graham West Porsche 911S 69

Round Two – Akademos Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 32
2 Ross Dunkerton John Large Datsun 240Z 46
3 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 47
4 Dean Rainsford Graham West Porsche 911S 59
5 Bill Evans Mike Mitchell Datsun 120Y 61
6 D Sutton R van der Straaten Torana GTR XU-1 65

Round Three – Bega Valley Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 55
2 Peter Lang Fred Gocentas Torana GTR XU-1 56
3 Ross Dunkerton John Large Datsun 240Z 63
4 Bill Evans Mike Mitchell Datsun 120Y 85
5 Bruce Cheesman Graham Lockie Datsun 1600 110
6 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 116

Round Four – Uniroyal Southern Rally (Walkerville)
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 5.25
2 Dean Rainsford Graham West Porsche 911S 7.25
3 Ross Dunkerton John Large Datsun 240Z 9.5
4 Bob Riley Brian Hope Mitsubishi Galant 9.75
5 Bill Evans Mike Mitchell Datsun 120Y 11.75
6 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 12.5

Round Five – Warana Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 64
2 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 67
3 Adrian Taylor John Suominen Honda Civic 70
4 Bill Evans Mike Mitchell Datsun 120Y 80
5 Murray Coote Brian Marsden Datsun 1200 81
6 Tom Barr-Smith Rob Hunt Leyland P76 89

Round Six – Bunbury-Curran Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 31
2 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 37
3 Bill Evans Mike Mitchell Datsun 120Y 93
4 R Pike J Cardi Datsun 180B 95
5 B Moore R Moore Toyota Corolla Sprinter 272
6 Brian Hilton Bruce Mudd Alfa Romeo Alfetta 278

Round Seven – Alpine Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Points
1 Stewart McLeod Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 78
2 Colin Bond George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 79
3 Adrian Taylor John Suominen Honda Civic 93
4 Tom Barr-Smith R Hunt Leyland P76 115
5 Dean Rainsford Graham West Porsche 911S 123
6 R Pike J Cardi Datsun 180B 142

1974 Drivers and Navigators Championships

Final pointscore for 1974 is as follows.[1][3]

Colin Bond – Champion Driver 1974
Position Driver Car Points
1 Colin Bond Torana GTR XU-1 42
2 Stewart McLeod Datsun 240Z 36
3 Ross Dunkerton Datsun 240Z 16
4 Peter Lang Torana GTR XU-1 15
5 Bill Evans Datsun 120Y 14
6 Dean Rainsford Porsche 911 12

George Shepheard – Champion Navigator 1974
Position Navigator Car Points
1 George Shepheard Torana GTR XU-1 45
2 Adrian Mortimer Datsun 240Z 36
3 John Large Datsun 240Z 16
4 Mike Mitchell Graham West Datsun 120Y 14
5 Graham West Porsche 911 12
6 John Suominen Honda Civic 8

References
  1. "Bega Valley Rally". Archived from the original on 2 March 2014.
  2. Australian Competition Yearbook 1975
  3. Australian Competition Yearbook 1975
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