London–Sydney Marathon

The London-Sydney Marathon is a rally racing event from the United Kingdom to Australia. It was first run in 1968, and a second event was organised in 1993 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original. Two further races have subsequently been contested in 2000 and 2004.

The original event was won by Andrew Cowan, Colin Malkin and Brian Coyle, driving a Hillman Hunter. Fifty-six cars finished.

1968

Background

The original Marathon was the result of a lunch in late 1967, during a period of despondency in Britain caused by the devaluation of the pound. Sir Max Aitken, proprietor of the Daily Express and two of his editorial executives, Jocelyn Stevens and Tommy Sopwith, decided to create an event which their newspaper could sponsor, and which would serve to raise the country's spirits. Such an event would, it was felt, act as a showcase for British engineering and would boost export sales in the countries through which it passed.

The initial UK£10,000 (AU$21,429) winner's prize offered by the Daily Express was soon joined by a £3,000 ($6,438) runners-up award and two £2,000 ($4,285) prizes for the third-placed team and for the highest-placed Australians, all of which were underwritten by the Daily Telegraph newspaper and its proprietor Sir Frank Packer, who was eager to promote the Antipodean leg of the race.

The route

An eight man organising committee was established to create a suitably challenging but navigable route. Jack Sears, organising secretary and himself a former racing driver, plotted a 7,000 mile course covering eleven countries in as many days, and arranged that the P&O liner S.S. Chusan would ferry the first 72 cars and their crews on the nine day voyage from India, before the final 2,600 miles across Australia:

Europe & Asia

• Leg 1: 24–25 November, London–Paris (12h 32m) — 1100hrs depart Crystal Palace, London; 0400hrs depart England at Dover on the cross-channel ferry to France; 1132hrs arrive Le Bourget Airport, Paris.
• Leg 2: 25–26 November, Paris–Turin (13h 32m) — to Italy via the Mont Blanc Tunnel; 0052hrs arrive Turin.
• Leg 3: 26 November, Turin–Belgrade (21h 12m) — autostrada towards Venice before crossing into Yugoslavia; 2204hrs arrive Belgrade.
• Leg 4: 26–27 November, Belgrade–Istanbul (15h 31m) — through Bulgaria by night into Turkey; 1335hrs arrive Istanbul.
• Leg 5: 27–28 November, Istanbul–Sivas (12h 25m) — crossing the Bosphorus by ferry, through Ankara and the Bolu Pass; 0300hrs arrive Sivas.
• Leg 6: 28 November, Sivas–Erzincan (2h 45m) — heading east across unsurfaced roads; 0445hrs Erzincan.
• Leg 7: 28–29 November, Erzincan–Tehran (22h 01m) — cross border into Iran; 0246hrs arrive Tehran.
• Leg 8: 29–30 November, Tehran–Kabul (23h 33m) — follow one of two routes to Islamquita in Afghanistan, either the northerly route across the Alburz Mountains skirting the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, or the shorter but more treacherous route along the north edge of the Great Salt Desert; 0219hrs arrive Kabul, where timeous crews can enjoy a 6.5 hour rest before the Khyber pass opens.
• Leg 9: 30 November, Kabul–Sarobi (1h 00m) — 0842hrs depart Kabul across an obsolete, loose-surfaced road through the Lataband Pass; 0942hrs arrive Sarobi.
• Leg 10: 30 November–1 December, Sarobi–Delhi (17h 55m) — cross Pakistan in a day into India; 0337hrs arrive Dehli.
• Leg 11: 1–2 December, Delhi–Bombay (22h 51m) — pass through Agra and Indore; 0228hrs arrive Bombay.

The remaining crews departed Bombay at 3am on Thursday, 5 December, arriving in Fremantle at 10am on Friday, 13 December before they restarted in Perth the following evening. Any repairs attempted on the car during the voyage would lead to the crew's exclusion.

Australia

• Leg 12: 14–15 December, Perth–Youanmi (7h 00m) — depart 1800hrs from Gloucester Park, traversing smooth but unsurfaced road; 0100hrs arrive deserted mining town of Youanmi.
• Leg 13: 15 December, Youanmi–Marvel Loch (4h 03m) — through semi-desert via Diemal to asphalt road at Bullfinch; 0503hrs arrive Marvel Loch.
• Leg 14: 15 December, Marvel Loch–Lake King (crossroads) (1h 59m) — into the Nullarbor Desert; 0702hrs arrive Lake King (crossroads).
• Leg 15: 15 December, Lake King (crossroads)–Ceduna (14h 52m) — 2154hrs arrive Ceduna.
• Leg 16: 15–16 December, Ceduna–Quorn (6h 18m) — 0412hrs arrive Quorn.
• Leg 17: 16 December, Quorn–Moralana Creek (1h 17m) — 0529hrs arrive Moralana Creek.
• Leg 18: 16 December, Moralana Creek–Brachina (1h 30m) — 0659hrs arrive Brachina.
• Leg 19: 16 December, Brachina –Mingary (4h 10m) — 1109hrs arrive Mingary.
• Leg 20: 16 December, Mingary–Menindee (2h 12m) — 1329hrs arrive Menindee.
• Leg 21: 16 December, Menindee–Gunbar (5h 18m) — 1839hrs arrive Gunbar.
• Leg 22: 16 December, Gunbar–Edi (4h 26m) — 2305hrs arrive Edi.
• Leg 23: 16–17 December, Edi–Brookside (1h 00m) — 0005hrs arrive Brookside.
• Leg 24: 17 December, Brookside–Omeo (1h 55m) — 0200hrs arrive Omeo.
• Leg 25: 17 December, Omeo–Murrindal (2h 06m) — 0406hrs arrive Murrindal.
• Leg 26: 17 December, Murrindal–Ingebyra (1h 31m) — 0537hrs arrive Ingebyra.
• Leg 27: 17 December, Ingebyra–Numeralla (1h 29m) — 0706hrs arrive Numeralla.
• Leg 28: 17 December, Numeralla–Hindmarsh Station (0h 42m) — 0748hrs arrive Hindmarsh Station.
• Leg 29: 17 December, Hindmarsh Station–Nowra (2h 01m) — 0949hrs arrive Nowra.
• Leg 30: 17 December, Nowra–Warwick Farm (3h 30m) — 1319hrs arrive Warwick Farm.
• Leg 31: 18 December, Warwick Farm–Sydney — arrive in procession, Sydney.

Result

Roger Clark established an early lead through the first genuinely treacherous leg, from Sivas to Erzincan in Turkey, averaging almost 60 mph in his Lotus Cortina for the 170 mile stage. Despite losing time in Pakistan and India, he maintained his lead to the end of the Asian section in Bombay, with Simo Lampinen's Ford Taunus second and Lucien Bianchi's DS21 in third.

However, once into Australia, Clark suffered several setbacks. A piston failure dropped him to third, and would have cost him a finish had he not been able to cannibalise fellow Ford Motor Company driver Eric Jackson's car for parts. After repairs were effected, he suffered what should have been a terminal rear differential failure. Encountering a Cortina by the roadside, he persuaded the initially reluctant owner to sell his rear axle and resumed once more, although at the cost of 80 minutes' delay while it was replaced.

By this time Bianchi and co-driver Jean-Claude Ogier had built an apparently unassailable lead ahead of Paddy Hopkirk in second, but approaching the Nowra checkpoint at the end of the penultimate stage with only 150 miles to Sydney, the Frenchmen were involved in a head-on collision which wrecked their Citroën and hospitalised the pair. Hopkirk, the first driver on the scene, gave up his chance of victory when he stopped to tend to the injured and extinguish the flames in the burning cars. That left Andrew Cowan, who had requested "a car to come last" from the Chrysler factory on the assumption that only half a dozen drivers would even reach Sydney, to take an unexpected victory in his Hillman Hunter and claim the £10,000 prize.

External links

• Trans World Events, organisers of the second, third and fourth rallies

1993 • 2000 • 2004

• 1968 London-Sydney Marathon, site dedicated to the original event
• The 1968 Daily Express London to Sydney Marathon: The great adventure of the decade, Julian Marsh, 1996
• Autralian government website promoting the 2004 event
• "Marathon men – get ready for London-Sydney 2004", Peter McKay, Drive.com.au, January 6, 2003
• Volvo UK Club coverage of the 1993 event