The 1977 Rally New Zealand (also known as the 8th South Pacific Rally) was the fifth round of the fifth World Rally Championship season, and the 6th event in the first Cup for Rally Drivers. It took place on from 1 May until 7 May in the North Island of New Zealand, and the rally was run mainly on gravel. It was the first time the New Zealand event was part of the Word Rally Championship.
Background Before the race Fiat and Ford had the same number of championship points, while Ford were likely to score big points in New Zealand as about two thirds of the starters would be in Ford Escorts. Fiat thus spent considerable effort on Rally New Zealand, airlifting 11 tonnes of supplies at a cost of over 300 million lira to support the three cars entered. To meet the local rally rules, Fiat had to register their cars locally and the 131 Abarths ran on New Zealand number plates.
Ford, meanwhile, entered Ari Vatanen in a single Escort RS1800 run by the local Masport team - a car which had already been used by Timo Mäkinen in the 1976 Southern Cross Rally. These three were the only factory entries, but nonetheless the rally proved well contested. Ford did invest in pairing local co-driver Jim Scott (two-time winner of the Rally New Zealand, in 1972 and 1976) but he resisted due to Vatanen's reputation for fearsome crashes. Scott did accept the position in the end, but his family insisted on having him call home at the end of each special stage to confirm that he was still alive.
As with the Southern Cross Rally in Australia, WRC organizers permitted certain local cars without FIA homologation to enter the rally under the "Group Pacific" category. This allowed some older Escorts, a Holden Torana, and other cars which used non FIA-sanctioned components to take part.Holmes 1977, p. 17.
Race report The rally ran for a planned 75 special stages in five legs across the North Island, starting at Wellington in the south and finishing in Auckland, at the northern tip. In the end, four stages were cancelled and two more stages were discounted from the final result, leaving 69 stages having been completed. The route was mainly gravel and sand (along with some stretches of volcanic ash), but the rally also included some tarmac. A few stages were cancelled, especially after heavy rains on the first day. Once the race started, the Fiats took the lead, but they soon started experiencing mechanical troubles, with all three cars overheating and Alén being sidelined on a transport stage with a severed waterhose. Trying to make up for lost time, Alén was caught speeding after having fixed his car, being clocked at when the national speed limit was - and then speeding up, rather than stopping for the police. Alén was fined NZ$100, but was also going to be excluded from the race. He continued under appeal, while Fiat's Team Manager Daniele Audetto cajoled, argued, and threatened to have the import of frozen meats from New Zealand to Italy blocked. After hearing numerous legal arguments, including the unusual colour of police car lights in New Zealand (red and yellow, the same as the rally service cars had), the organizers eventually relented when Audetto argued the technicality that disqualifying Alén was not by order of the stewards, but of the Clerk of the course.
Vatanen lived up to his reputation as fast but crash-prone, finishing with barely a straight panel but having won 47 of the 69 stages.Holmes 1977, p. 16. He held the lead after the first five stages but then lost 23 minutes after having gone off the road and down a bank, requiring winching back onto the road. He crashed again on the first stage of the second leg, on tarmac at night time, losing another five minutes. A shamefaced Vatanen turned up the pace and at the end of the second leg he was back up in fifth place, behind the three Fiats and Millen's RX-3. Vatanen crashed again early on the third leg, going off the road backwards on a night stage. At the end of the day, he had climbed to fourth place after winning nearly every stage. He kept closing in, and on the rally's longest stage, around , Vatanen performed the feat of passing all three factory Fiats on the course. A puncture set him back again, but Bacchelli also had his fair share of incidents towards the end of the long race: he went off the road on the fourth leg, and for the final day he did two full stages without oil pressure. Bacchelli then took a wrong turn, losing a precious minute. With only a two-minute lead over Vatanen (who had slowed down, lest he run out of luck) he was now nursing his car along at minimum revs, finishing the rally on three cylinders only a minute and a half ahead of Vatanen for his first major rally victory.
At the end of the rally, with their cars eking out a victory and also a third and fourth, Fiat's Team Manager Audetto stated "we won, but it destroyed us."
Results 1977 Rally New Zealand results Finish Totaltime Group Car # DriverCo-driver Car Mfr.points Overall Ingroup 1 1 24 h : 29 m : 55 s 4 1 Fulvio Bacchelli Francesco Rossetti Fiat 131 Abarth 18 (10+8) 2 2 24 h : 31 m : 29 s 4 2 Ari Vatanen Jim Scott Ford Escort RS1800 MkII 16 (9+7) 3 3 24 h : 51 m : 54 s 4 3 Markku Alén Fiat 131 Abarth 4 4 24 h : 55 m : 47 s 4 5 Simo Lampinen Fiat 131 Abarth 5 5 25 h : 47 m : 59 s 4 6 Rod Millen Mike Franchi Mazda RX-3 10 (6+4) 6 6 26 h : 09 m : 39 s 4 14 John Woolf Grant Whittaker Mazda RX-3 7 7 28 h : 12 m : 48 s 4 34 John Sergel Mike Fletcher Ford Escort RS1800 MkII 8 1 28 h : 21 m : 45 s 2 39 Richard Tippett Adrian Hercock Ford Escort RS2000 9 8 28 h : 26 m : 41 s 4 46 Morrie Chandler Don Campbell Mitsubishi Colt Lancer 3 (2+1) 10 2 28 h : 45 m : 13 s 2 22 Alan Brough Mike Galvin Toyota Sprinter Trueno 8 (1+7) 11 3 28 h : 54 m : 03 s 2 66 Bruce McKenzie Daniel Rakete Ford Escort RS1600 12 1 28 h : 55 m : 20 s 1 36 Robert Brown Mike Gibbs Mazda RX-3 13 4 29 h : 00 m : 51 s 2 37 Dave Morris Maurice Hiestand Vauxhall Firenza 14 29 h : 09 m : 36 s ? 21 Tony Baker Marlene Baker Datsun 120Y 15 29 h : 14 m : 07 s 2 19 George Kuttel Jenny Kuttel Ford Escort RS1800 MkII 16 29 h : 28 m : 10 s ? 42 David Parkes Robin Parkes Ford Escort 1600 MkII 17 29 h : 40 m : 40 s 2 30 Brent Rawstron Mark Nicholls Toyota 18 29 h : 41 m : 53 s 2 91 Steve Russ Paul Russ Mazda RX-3 19 29 h : 59 m : 05 s 4 31 Neil Johns Hammond de Thierry Mazda RX-3 20 30 h : 04 m : 21 s ? 49 Bryan Andrews Graeme Milne Ford Escort RS2000 21 30 h : 06 m : 36 s 4 44 Alfred Goldsbury Darcy Meier Mazda RX-3 22 30 h : 12 m : 56 s ? 82 Stewart McKenzie Patrick Grant Datsun 1200 23 30 h : 23 m : 08 s ? 86 Terry Bell Jeff Mathews Ford Escort 24 30 h : 37 m : 16 s 2 64 Steve Donohue Tony Hanniffin Mazda RX-3 25 30 h : 37 m : 30 s 69 Bill Scott Sr. Bruce McGhee Ford Escort 26 30 h : 40 m : 07 s 4 76 Bruce Powell Rita Patrick Mazda RX-3 27 30 h : 43 m : 22 s ? 72 Max Broad Sydney Broad Hillman Avenger 28 30 h : 51 m : 13 s 2 38 Roger Goss David Monteith Mazda 29 30 h : 52 m : 14 s ? 45 Ross Gordon Les Edwards Ford Escort RS1600 30 31 h : 01 m : 41 s ? 94 Trevor Barker Alvin Ferguson Ford Escort 31 31 h : 28 m : 07 s ? 80 Don Elliot Peter Barnie Mazda 808 32 31 h : 37 m : 17 s 1 78 Bevan Wilson Richard McNair Mazda RX-3 33 32 h : 47 m : 14 s 4 83 John Short Martin Olsen Ford Escort 34 32 h : 55 m : 41 s ? 102 Richard Prouse Silvana Prouse Hillman Avenger 35 33 h : 45 m : 42 s ? 87 Dick Watson Lew Richardson Toyota Corolla Retired {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="font-size:90%;" |- |+ align=center style="background:#BFD7FF"| Retirements |- style="background:#efefef;" !width=8% | Car # !width=8% | Group !width=30% | DriverCo-driver !width=30% | Car !width=10% | Notes |- align=center ! 4 || 4 |align=left| Mike Marshall Arthur McWatt |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired (engine) |- align=center ! 7 || 2 |align=left| Dante Silverio Sigfriedo Fuentes |align=left| Toyota Corolla (E30) | Retired |- align=center ! 8 || 4 |align=left| Blair Robson Chris Porter |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired (engine) |- align=center ! 9 || 4 |align=left| Colin Taylor Kingsley Foulkes |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired |- align=center ! 10 || 2 |align=left| Paul Adams Peter Davidson |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired |- align=center ! 11 || 4 |align=left| Clive Smith David Cooke |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired |- align=center ! 12 || 4 |align=left| Alan Carter Rodger Freeth |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired |- align=center ! 13 || 4 |align=left| Alan Mitchell Thomas Matthew |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired |- align=center ! 15 || 4 |align=left| Paddy Davidson Eugene Redgate |align=left| Datsun 160J | Retired |- align=center ! 16 || ? |align=left| Brian Green Robert Orr |align=left| Ford Escort | Retired |- align=center ! 17 || 4 |align=left| David Cooney Russel McKnight |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired |- align=center ! 18 || 4 |align=left| Tim Gibbes Rod Brayshaw |align=left| Ford Escort RS | Retired |- align=center ! 20 || 4 |align=left| Bob Couch John Couch |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired |- align=center ! 23 || 2 |align=left| C. Kirk-Burnnand Struan Robertson |align=left| Datsun 510 | Retired |- align=center ! 24 || 2 |align=left| Gavin Young Reece Callingham |align=left| Toyota Corolla | Retired |- align=center ! 25 || P |align=left| Hugh Armstrong David Murie |align=left| Holden Torana | Retired |- align=center ! 26 || 2 |align=left| David Civil Cliff Boyt |align=left| Ford Escort RS1800 MkII | Retired |- align=center ! 27 || 2 |align=left| Bob Robb Malcolm Gavin |align=left| Datsun 710 | Retired |- align=center ! 28 || 2 |align=left| Tony Street Tom Adams |align=left| Ford Escort RS2000 | Retired |- align=center ! 29 || |align=left| John Gladhill Gordon Tucker |align=left| Ford Escort RS2000 | Retired |- align=center ! 32 || 4 |align=left| Ian Begg David Leitch |align=left| Mazda RX-3 | Retired |- align=center ! 33 || 4 |align=left| Dave Daily Walter Hart |align=left| Ford Escort RS1600 | Retired |- align=center ! 35 || 4 |align=left| Rocky Cribb Peter Rattenbury |align=left| Ford Escort | Retired
Championship standings Position Team MON SWE POR KEN NZL GRC FIN ITA CAN FRA GBR Points 1 Fiat 16 14 18 1866 2 Ford 14 16 18 1664 3 Opel 9 17 1339 4 Lancia 18 1432 = Toyota 10 14 832 6 Saab 1818 = Porsche 14 418 8 Datsun 1616 9 Mitsubishi 12 315 10 SEAT 1414 11 Alpine-Renault 1010 = Mazda 1010 13 Volvo 88 14 Peugeot 66 15 Lada 44
References
External links Official website