It must have been in 1972, my first full season of car rallying. I was navigating for a bloke called Wayne and the car was, of course, a Bellett 1500 4 door - modified with twin SUs, some head-work, and extractors and the usual sump guard, Cibie driving lights, Halda tripmaster etc.
A big rally was approaching, and we decided to do some ’practice’ in the forests around Canberra. So one fine and cold Friday night found us blasting through the pine trees in Pierces Creek, using the route instructions from a previous rally and timing ourselves against the clock. After a couple of sections, the car was flying and Wayne was on fire. We came to a long downhill section with a ‘T’ junction at the bottom and I’m calling it “Turn left at T 300.... 200... 100”. And I’m thinking, “Gee this is a bit quick...”
We came to the T – fairly wide open road luckily - and turned. The car slid and slid and then the outside wheels bit and it started to lift the inside wheels. Suddenly it has two wheels well in the air and I’m looking down at Wayne to my right, thinking “F*** we’re going over - no roll cage, and this floppy towel hat makes a piss-poor crash helmet". The car hangs there, balancing on two wheels for what seems like an eternity but is probably only a second - and then - bang! - falls. Back onto all four, stopped.
“S*** that was close”. Wayne puts it into 1st and drops the clutch – and we go nowhere. WTF
Getting out, we find the right hand rear wheel wedged at a funny angle under the guard, and closer inspection shows the half-axle snapped at the outer end. That snapping and wedging had probably saved us from rolling.
So we’re stuck in the middle of the forest – fortunately I’d talked one of my mates into following us around ‘just in case’. He soon arrives. Can’t tow the car so we will have to fix it out there. We know there is a wrecker in Canberra with a Bellett that we can get the parts from in the morning, so no problem. But Wayne won’t leave the car – he is convinced that someone will find it and steal the Cibie lights, Halda etc. So Paul and I head back into town, catch a couple of hours sleep, call at the wreckers at sparrows, pull the bits we need off the wreck, and head back out. We arrive about lunchtime (with food) to find Wayne complaining about how cold it was and what the hell took us so long – so long that his stomach had shrunk! Bloody prima-donna drivers! And no, he hadn't seen or heard a soul since we left...
Vic
PS - we later snapped the other half-shaft, while competing in the the rally we were practicing for. I have a story about that too if anyone's interested.
