1983 Australian Rally Championship

The 1983 Australian Rally Championship was a series of four rallying events held across Australia. It was the 16th season in the history of the competition.

Ross Dunkerton won the 1983 Drivers Championship and Geoff Jones took out the navigators honours for the year.

Season review

The 16th Australian Rally Championship was held over four events across Australia, the season consisting of one event each for Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. With the series being reduced to four events for the year, the field split between two categories with the introduction of Group A cars and the lack of any factory backed teams, things did not look promising. This was compounded when the second round in Queensland was postponed twice due to inclement weather. However it was an interesting and hard fought season with Dunkerton taking out his fifth title and using three different cars and two navigators to do so. The navigator's title went to Geoff Jones who was with runner up to the driver's title Peter Johnson for all four events.

The Rallies

The five events of the 1983 season were as follows.[1][2]

Round Rally Date
1 The Sunday Times Safari (WA) 4–5 June 1983
2 The James Hardie National Rally (QLD) 16–17 July 1983
3 Dunlop 2GO Rally (NSW) 13–14 August 1983
4 The Enka-Fill Alpine Rally (VIC) 19–20 November 1983

Round One – The Sunday Times Safari
Position Driver Navigator Car Penalties
1 Greg Carr Fred Gocentas Fiat 131 Abarth 219.37
2 John Macara David Hatley Datsun 1600 228.31
=3 Ross Dunkerton Steve McKimmie Datsun 1600 229.05
=3 David Officer Kate Hobson Mitsubishi Galant 229.05
5 Ken Joss Leo Iriks Datsun 1600 234.08
6 Peter Thompson Simon Scott Datsun Stanza 243.33

Group A

Position Driver Navigator Car Penalties
1 Chris Brown Noel Richards Holden Commodore SS 251.48
2 Caroline O’Shannesy Jill Davies Fiat 131 Superbrava 322.05

Round Two – The James Hardie National Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Penalties
1 Ross Dunkerton David Kortlang Datsun Stanza 206.38
2 Peter Glennie Brian Smith Datsun 200B 209.24
3 David Officer Kate Hobson Mitsubishi Galant 211.22
4 Peter Thompson Simon Scott Datsun Stanza 216.53
5 Murray Coote Brian Marsden Datsun 1200 218.03
6 Wayne Bell Dave Boddy Toyota T18 221.02

Group A

Position Driver Navigator Car Penalties
1 Peter Johnson Geoff Jones Mazda RX-7
2 Peter Lockhart John Hall Isuzu Gemini PF50

Round Three – The Dunlop 2GO Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Penalties
1 Ian Hill Phil Bonser Ford Escort RS 181.18
2 Murray Coote Brian Marsden Datsun 1200 181.40
3 David Officer Kate Hobson Mitsubishi Galant 182.18
4 Graham Wise John Williams Datsun 1600 184.18
5 Clive Slater Alan Stafford Toyota Celica 184.23
6 Ron Cremmen M Verrall Datsun Stanza 184.45

Group A

Position Driver Navigator Car Penalties
1 Peter Johnson Geoff Jones Mazda RX-7 198.36
2 Russell Worthington Simon Kabel Mazda 626 199.30

Round Four – The Enka-Fill Alpine Rally
Position Driver Navigator Car Penalties
1 Ian Hill Phil Bonser Ford Escort RS 4:04.57
2 Hugh Bell Paul Paterson Datsun 1600 "Dazda" 4:05.06
3 David Officer Kate Hobson Mitsubishi Galant 4:06.46
4 Clive Slater Steve Owers Toyota Celica 4:12.42
5 John Berne Bruce Fullerton Ford Escort RS 4:14.39
6 Chris Wall Jim Maude Datsun 1600 4:14.46
7 Rod Jones Mark Blume Datsun 1600 4:15.39
8 Peter Glover David Burns Ford Escort 4:16.13
9 Steve Ashton Bernard Peasley Datsun 1600 4:16.28
10 Barry Lowe Ted Dobrzynski Datsun 1600 "Dazda" 4:18.09

1983 Drivers and Navigators Championships

Final pointscore for 1983 is as follows.[3]

Ross Dunkerton – Champion Driver 1983
Position Driver Car Points
1 Ross Dunkerton Datsun 1600
Datsun Stanza
Holden Commodore		 56.5
2 Peter Johnson Mazda RX-7 55
3 David Officer Mitsubishi Galant 54.5
4 Ian Hill Ford Escort 48
5 Russell Worthington Mazda 626 39
6 Caroline O'Shannesy Fiat 131 Superbrava 35
7 Murray Coote Datsun 1200 26
8 Greg Carr Fiat 131 Abarth 24
9 Peter Lockhart Isuzu Gemini 23
10 Chris Browne Holden Commodore 20

Geoff Jones – Champion Navigator 1983
Position Navigator Car Points
1 Geoff Jones (with Johnson) 55
2 Kate Hobson (with Officer) 54 1/2
3 Phil Bonser (with Hill) 48
4 David Kortlang (with Dunkerton) 44
5 Gary Kabel (with Worthington) 39
6 Meg Davis (with O'Shannesy) 35
7 Brian Marsden (with Coote) 26
8 Fred Gocentas (with Carr) 24
9 Stephen Treadwell (with Lockhart) 23
10 Noel Richards (with Brown) 20

References
  1. "Bega Valley Rally". Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  2. Australian Motor Racing Year 1983/84 ISSN 0158-4138
  3. Australian Motor Racing Year 1983/84 ISSN 0158-4138
  • Results of Snowy Mountains Rally and ARC results.
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