During my six or more years navigating I sat beside a wide variety of drivers. It is kind of scary to look back on some of them, although it is fair to say that accidents were fairly infrequent and injuries were virtually unheard of back in the 70s. Despite the fact that the safety equipment in cars back in the 70s was pretty minimal, the sport was generally much safer than today, simply because the speeds nowadays are generally so much higher.
My first year was with Geoff Doyle - Doyley to his friends. A young law student, we somehow got together via word of mouth within the Car Club of the RMIT of which Noel, Garry and others were members. Geoff was a laconic easy going guy and his driving was fairly laid back. If the navigation became difficult, he would occasionally light up a fag to break the monotony! We had some good times together, even though Geoff was never going to break into the big time. At that stage, at least, he didn’t have the budget! Geoff and I drifted apart in following years and I was saddened to hear that he had a serious road accident as a pedestrian years later which put him in hospital for many months.
David Bond and I teamed the following year, 1973 (described here) and again in 1975 (described here), plus the Southern Cross in 76 (described here).
With some fame resulting from good performances in 1973, I had no problem finding varied rides in 1974. The most notable was with Frank Kilfoyle, and my time with Kilf is described here.
During 1974 I had a few other rides. Perhaps the most notable was "Wild” Bill Evans for whom I navigated in the 1974 Experts Trial because his usual navigator, Mike Mitchell, was one of the directors. The event is briefly described here. Bill was a "never say die", "press on regardless" kind of driver, noted for his wild antics both on the track and off. The mount was a diminutive Datsun 120Y with bulk horsepower, and he gave it a serious caning on some of the rough roads. I recall bouncing from one washaway to the next, literally, as I wondered whether the car may break in two. Bill did not understand the concept of slowing down over the rough stuff - the car either broke or it didn’t. It was well prepared, and it didn’t break, and we finished about fourth.
With Wild Bill Evans on the 1974 Experts (Chris Brown photo)
Someone whose car tended to break a lot was Wayne Muldoon. I navigated for him just the once, in the 1974 Midlander Rally, a VRC event up Dunolly way. Unlike his brother Rex, who was an outgoing and gregarious copper, Wayne was shy and quiet. That is, until he got behind the wheel and he was actually damned quick. However his car preparation somehow left a lot to be desired and the fact that he failed to finish more often than he did had to be attributed to something other than just bad luck. On that night something failed, electrical I think, and we had to cut-and-run to the division break, but apparently did well on the second division!
Yet another whose car preparation was not up to scratch was Glenn Olsen. He was a very confident young University student who was convinced that his BMW 2002 was the quickest thing on earth. Well in fact it could be quick, but our first event, the 1974 Begonia, saw us lose about 20 points for being late at the start due to last minute car preparations. But for that we migth have placed well because we set a few fastest times. We then ran an event down Gippsland way, probably the 1974 Penfolds. We were pretty competitive early on as we tackled some flowing mountain roads north of Bairnsdale. His style was fluid and precise, the car’s handling being spot on. Alas, something broke somewhere near Bruthen and our event came to an untimely end. It was a shame really, since with more money Glenn and his beloved BMW might just have made a mark.
Glen Olsen and myself at the start of an unknown event!
Someone who never sought fame and fortune but just enjoyed his sport was Graham Horsfield. I only navigated for Graham the once, in the 1973 Classic Rally in South Gippsland, which was a round of the Australian Rally Championship. Graham was a fireman by trade and he had helped me a lot with the selection and maintenance of my Corolla, since he ran a little lime green Corolla himself., later swapping to a 240Z and later to a V6 Capri. Graham was a character all right, certainly not prone to be wild, but rather eccentric being a confirmed bachelor living at home with Mum and Dad at the age of thirty or so. He was fun to ride with, both because of his good humour and his seemingly sedate yet actually quite competitive driving style.
Another driver that I teamed with for a single event some years later that had a smooth and unpretentious style was Phil Bernadou. I ran with him in his Datsun 1600 in the 1977 Derrick. His style was akin to David Bond’s, smooth and flowing, and he was quite competitive. Somehow we fnishe dout of the points.
Garry Spence and myself in the 1975 Goldfields Rally
I did only one event with Garry Spence in his Galant, although we spent many hours together in surveying situations. It was the 1975 Goldfields Rally run by Warwick Smith, an incredibly tight and demanding fully route charted affair around the Dunolly area. Garry’s style was rather like mine - quite aggressive. I suspect I would have made a very poor passenger to my own driving and on this occasion I became so car sick with Garry that I was unable to continue. A somewhat similar driver was David Jones whom I ran with in his Lancer in an Experts several years later. He too was very aggressive and again I became too car sick to continue.
I navigated for John “Dicko” Dixon for much of 1976 and 77 as described here, as well as for a few interstate drivers, Lyn Gigney and David Rose in Tasmabia and Brenton Maidment in SA, as described here.
Perhaps the greatest wildman of all time was the inimitable Peter Janson. I had the "pleasure" of navigating for him on just one event, the 1976 Forester. Ian Pearson leant him his Lancer for a promotional run, although I had no knowledge of what dollars may have changed hands for the "renal" of the car. It ran generally around the Moondara Reservoir area but also went up towards Matlock as well as eastwards to Cowarr. Janson lived in the Windsor Hotel penthouse at the time and I went along to visit him a couple of times. He was a real character, although rather too "up himself" for my liking. He was obviously independently wealthy and just liked having a good time! He hadn’t driven in rallies for a while and never in a Lancer, and indeed his motor sport was limited to regular runs at Bathurst where he did quite well. Obviously the man could drive and I found that he was incredibly aggressive and had lightning fast reflexes. Style was not his forté. To be fair, though, he had not driven the car before the event and his twitchy start developed into quite a smooth approach by the end of the event. He had his moments though, including when I missed a call and he just threw it sideways on the narrow road in order to do a U-turn, but the damned thing went up on two wheels and we were lucky to not have rolled. In any case, we came equal first (with Bob Waterhouse and Paul Paterson I think) and had a good time!
I ran in several events with some female drivers who were real characters. Early on I did at least a couple of events with Jean Reid who went on to marry, and later divorce, David Jones. She had competed for many years and enjoyed her sport. I would never describe her as terribly fast but she was sensible and fairly efficient in her car control. The other female was Janiene Kilfoyle (formerly Bishop, subsequently Sandford). She was aggressive sometimes beyond her skill levels and it was inevitable that she would eventually come to grief, which we did one night in the StArnaud Forest, clobbering a tree just after a crest where the road went left. We also ran in one event in Tasmania where we spent a lot of time bogged, but what the hell, it was good fun anyway.
