London Classic Marathon Rally Part 1

During April and May, Chris Palmer undertook the gruelling Sydney to London Classic Marathon Rally in his beloved 1967 Mustang.

The rally started in Sydney and consisted of 91 stages, 33 of which we’re gravel stages in Australia and 58 tarmac stages in Europe.

The route crossed Australia to Perth, where the vehicles were put on to an aircraft freighter and sent to Ankara, Turkey.

From there, drivers travelled through Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, France and the United Kingdom.

Here is how Chris’ month-long, trans-world competition played out:

April 9: Ron Reid and Paul Stafford were "Official Support Crew" for the Australian leg of the rally for Chris and gave everything the once over before heading to Melbourne on the boat.

April 10: Chris and the crew arrived safely in Sydney. However, things didn’t start well, with the Mustang having a few 'minor' problems but nothing major!

April 11: After spending the night repairing the gearbox, the boys continued working on it on the third day. Thankfully, by the end of the day, it was fixed and the Mustang was ready to go.

April 12: The big race started out of Sydney. Chris couldn't believe the tracks, with the off road 4wd sections including tight turns and deep ruts with a creek to negotiate. There were a few left turns made instead of right and a few instances of bottoming out. Add in a herd of cattle on the track and kangaroos all around, and it made for one gruelling, but good day. Still in New South Wales, they ended the day in Parkes.

April 13: Day two saw the trio leaving Parkes and ending in Cobar, still in NSW. There were better driving sections and only one mountain goat section. The day included some fast sections and some tight slippery sections. They were still running a good last place – it seemed the navigator needed disciplining some times!

April 14: On day three, the guys left Cobar and finished up in Broken Hill, in New South Wales before entering South Australia.The third day started a bit different. The boys were told off on day one for doing a ``small’’ burnout and today were encouraged to it – so they obliged! Chris and the team did quite well in stage 1, then dropped the 2nd stage due to the course seeing 4WD vehicles getting bogged on the way to the last stage. Another Mustang got bogged and the boys tried to tow it out and ripped off their back bumper, so a 4WD pulled them out instead. Then, what do you know, the white Mustang then went on to hit a kangaroo.

April 15: Day four and it was time to leave Broken Hill and start a good days racing into South Australia, finishing in Renmark. The guys had a couple of long sandy tracks, so they had to keep the car moving. They had a few sand dune jumps, which weren't too good. It appeared the navigator was having a few problems with his lefts and rights. No his fault – bloody maps! They had a problem with the ignition switch and had to push start once.

April 16: The team left Renmark on Day 5 and finishing the day in the beautiful Barossa. The track was very ordinary with a lot of sand dunes, deep ruts and heaps of jumps and bends. Watts Link wasn't too bad, but then did a fan belt right before stage 2 which was lucky. The car was still going well! The Rally also experienced its first crash during stage 3. No one was injured and everyone worked all night to try and fix it.

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READ SYDNEY TO LONDON CLASSIC MARATHON RALLY PART 2.