9 – 14 OCTOBER 1976

Start (Sydney – Amaroo Park)/Finish (Sydney – Motorcade to Hyde Park)

Andrew Cowan/Fred Gocentas in the Mitsubishi Lancer – from the 1977 cover of the souvenir booklet

Summary

It wasn’t until the last 150 kilometres of the 3300 kilometre 1976 Southern Cross International Rally that five times winner of the event, Andrew Cowan, knew he had a chance of making that six times. This was when the event-long leader, George Fury/Monty Suffern’s Datsun 710 differential failed, putting them out of the rally. Cowan went on to arrive at Port Macquarie with a massive 45 minutes lead over his teammates Barry Ferguson/Neil Faulkner, with the best of the four Datsun 710 team that started the event, crewed by Shehkar Mehta/Adrian Mortimer only two points behind. It was then a considerable gap to the Mitsubishi Team Leader, Doug Stewart, with John Dawson-Damer, 4th place, his best finish in the event.

This year’s event had that strongest international contingency of drivers seen in Australian rallying to date, many of them world-rated stars.

The first night decimated the field, with 31% (26) of the starting field falling by the wayside; the second night was worst with 35% (20) of the 57 that started the second night and on the third night 32% (12) of those starting dropped out. 22 finished within the late time limit, with 10 completing the full course. Although conditions were not as difficult as some previous years when wet weather intervened, the failure rate is an indication of the toughness of event.

However, three privateers finished in the top ten, a very creditable effort demonstrating the abilities of Australia’s privateers.

Final Placings