1974 Australian Rally Championship

Last updated September 27, 2019

1974 Australian Rally Championship
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1974 ARC winners Colin Bond and George Shepheard in the HDT Holden Torana GTR XU-1. Bond 1974 Graham Ruckert.jpg — 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. McLeod 1974 Graham Ruckert.jpg — 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. Dunkerton 1974 Graham Ruckert.jpg — 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.

The Australian Rally Championship (ARC) is Australia's leading off-road motor rally competition. A multi-event national championship has been held each year since 1968.

Rally is a form of motorsport that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars. It is distinguished by running not on a circuit, but instead in a point-to-point format in which participants and their co-drivers drive between set control points, leaving at regular intervals from one or more start points. Rallies may be won by pure speed within the stages or alternatively by driving to a predetermined ideal journey time within the stages.

Season review
The Rallies
Round One – Semperit 1600
Round Two – Akademos Rally
Round Three – Bega Valley Rally
Round Four – Uniroyal Southern Rally (Walkerville)
Round Five – Warana Rally
Round Six – Bunbury-Curran Rally
Round Seven – Alpine Rally
1974 Drivers and Navigators Championships
Colin Bond – Champion Driver 1974
George Shepheard – Champion Navigator 1974
References

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

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. He quickly found success, winning the 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 mile race at Bathurst, New South Wales in a Holden Monaro.

The Holden Dealer Team (HDT) was Holden's semi-official racing team from 1969 until 1986, primarily contesting Australian Touring Car events but also rallying, rallycross and sports sedans during the 1970s. From 1980 the Holden Dealer Team, by then under the ownership of Peter Brock, diversified into producing modified road-going Commodores and other Holden cars for selected dealers via HDT Special Vehicles.

The Holden Torana is a mid-sized car manufactured by Holden from 1967 to 1980. The name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning "to fly". The original HB series Torana was released in 1967 and was a four-cylinder compact vehicle closely based on the British Vauxhall Viva HB series of 1966 - 1970.

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 West Australia. This season consisted of two events in Victoria and one each in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and West 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.

Victoria is a state in south-eastern Australia. Victoria is Australia's smallest mainland state and its second-most populous state overall, making it the most densely populated state overall. Most of its population lives concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city. Victoria is bordered by Bass Strait and Tasmania to the south, New South Wales to the north, the Tasman Sea, to the east, and South Australia to the west.

Queensland is the second-largest and third-most populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, 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. To its north is the Torres Strait, with Papua New Guinea located less than 200 km across it from the mainland. The state is the world's sixth-largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 square kilometres (715,309 sq mi).

New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Tasman Sea to the east. The Australian Capital Territory is an enclave within the state. New South Wales' state capital is Sydney, which is also Australia's most populous city. In March 2019, the population of New South Wales was over 8 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Just under two-thirds of the state's population, 5.1 million, live in the Greater Sydney area. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen.

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

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References

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

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[begavalleyrally-1] 1 2 "Bega Valley Rally". Archived from the original on 2 March 2014.

[2] Australian Competition Yearbook 1975

[3] Australian Competition Yearbook 1975