Leg 2 – The Course… 

This was a one day run, due to the constraints imposed by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) on minimum overnight rest periods. The day needed to be quite direct with limited competition and the morning saw the field travel to Canberra for a special stage combing two famous stages from the 1970s Castrol International Rally – ‘Pierces Humps’ and ‘The Mineshaft’. This stage, called the ‘Mineshaft’, over 23km, provided an opportunity for those drivers with some nerve to show their skills on the tricky rally roads.

A run across the Australian Alps to Tumut and Adelong to a service at Tarcutta, and then to Albury/Wodonga and further to Yackandandah for the 22km ‘Stanley’ special stage, which took in some of the roads used by Australia’s oldest car rally, the Alpine Rally. Following the stage, a short rest break was taken at Beechworth, with the town’s main street closed for a service area.

Another long transport followed to the final 23km ‘Mount Disappointment’ stage, a true forestry stage, the last such stage until the field was approaching Brisbane weeks later.

Then onto the Safety Monitoring Control before the parc ferme in Melbourne.