The Vauxhall Entries
Car 40 Jim Russell, I.R. Driving School, Gt. Britain, Vauxhall Ventora, D. Walker
Car 67 C.J. Woodley, Gt. Britain, Vauxhall Ventora, C.J. Woodley
Car 95 N. Koga, Japan, Vauxhall Viva GT, N. Koga
There were three Vauxhalls entered in the Marathon.
Two were Vauxhall Ventoras from the UK and a Vauxhall Viva GT entry from Japan
Former English racing driver Jim Russell, who ran a school for racing drivers in Norfolk, entered three of his pupils driving a Vauxhall Ventora (car 30). His crew was led by David Walker, 27, Scottish Formula Ford champion backed by Doug Morris, a mechanic, and Bryan Jones, a navigator on P. & O. ships. Russell fitted the Ventora with a 3.3 litre six cylinder engine, extra heavy springs and shock absorbers, as well as an additional 40 gallon fuel tank.
He saw the Marathon as more of an endurance test than a rally.Crewman David Walker's wife Janet flew to Australia to look the route over with the help of her father, retired Air Vice Marshal Sir Ronald Lees, who was living near Sydney.
An orthopaedic surgeon at Guy's Hospital, London, designed the seat for Russell's car.
Cecil Woodley, manager of an English seaside hotel, decided to take his Vauxhall Ventora to Sydney for a drive, undeterred by the fact that he had never done any competitive motoring. Woodley said he had been an Army driving instructor during the war and thought that anywhere a tank could go, a car should.
He advertised for crew, and unluckily drew 67th position in the Marathon. With only 70 places for cars on the liner Chusan from Bombay to Perth, he could hardly afford to let any of the other competitors pass him. Alas, Woodley's taste for high speed driving was short-lived. His car crashed off the road in Yugoslavia, two days out from London.
Alan Sawyer
About midnight, Jim Russell Driver's School Vauxhall Ventora, car no. 40, slipped off the road 25 miles from Erzincan. Crewman Doug Morris tried to lift the car with a jack but it slipped and the vehicle fell on him. "Milko" (no relation to "Gelignite") Jack Murray, in Maitland Motor's Holden HK no. 91, arrived and helped Morris' crewmates free him. Morris was taken to Erzincan where he was admitted to the hospital with a possible fractured skull. The Ventora went on without him, and Morris, whose injuries were not as serious as first thought, caught up with them in Bombay. Russell's Ventora lost 117 points at Erzincan.
Alan Sawyer
Wilson's Motor Caravan Centre BMC 1800 arrives at the dreadful crash of car 67 Woodley's Vauxhall Ventora.
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The Japanese entry: Vauxhall Viva GT (Car 95)
Ten miles from Ankara the Japanese drivers in their Vauxhall Viva GT had their windscreen shattered by rocks thrown by children. The kids popped out from nowhere and disappeared just as fast. With almost 200 small villages in the 547 mile run it was very hard to avoid this new hazard.
John Smailes
Spectators were taking notice at Perth of a Japanese entry, no. 95. a standard Vauxhall Viva. Driven by a top Japanese racing team of Koga, Terada and Mitsumata, the car had been bought new in London three days before the Marathon and travelled overland without so much as a sump guard.
Alan Sawyer
Arriving at Istanbul - in the foreground car 40 the Vauxhall Ventora of Jim Russell. Next to him is Roger Clark's Ford Lotus Cortina
Photo courtesy: George Seymour
At Belgrade, a British driver was injured when his car, a Vauxhall Ventora no. 67, plunged off the road and into a sea of mud 146 kilometres before Belgrade early this morning. Cecil Woodley suffered a broken collarbone when his Vauxhall struck a guide post and rolled end for end into a paddock.
Doctors at the Troumataolosky Hospital administered pain killing drugs to Woodley, but advised British Embassy officials in Belgrade that he would have to be flown to London for an operation. Woodley said that a discarded cigarette caused him to crash.
Andrew Welinski and Gerry Lister driving car 43 the AMOCO Australia Volvo 144S, were first to arrive at the crash scene. Woodley told them he had thrown his cigarette butt out the window but it had blown back into the car and landed on his co-driver who was asleep on the back seat. Woodley reached back to grab it and ploughed straight off the road.
"The car was upside down in a sea of mud more than 50 yards from the road," Welinski said later. "The three drivers were out of the car and wandering around, obviously in shock. The lights were still burning, the heater was on and fuel from the fractured tank was spilling everywhere. Gerry reached inside and turned off the ignition- then we pushed the car back on its wheels. It was a complete write-off."
Lister saw Woodley was walking around in circles holding his arm to his side. "He said it was really hurting him, so I ran to the road to get help," Lister said. "Alex Gorshenin a Sydney Macquarie Street specialist, arrived a few minutes later in his Mercedes (car 28) and I hailed him down. Gorshenin looked at Woodley but could nothing for him and told him to get to hospital as soon as possible. We offered to give Woodley a lift into Belgrade but he declined and we went on. I heard later he got a lift in a Porsche when the pain became too great to bear."
British officials, who had slept at the Embassy overnight in case the Marathon posed any problems, arranged to have Woodley flown back to London for surgery.
Meanwhile his two co-drivers Steven Green and Dick Cullingford, both of Ringwood, had a problem in one completely written off Vauxhall on the road from Zagreb to Belgrade. They had to tow it from the country immediately - or pay import duty on the car.
John Smailes
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Car 40 Jim Russell, I.R. Driving School, Gt. Britain, Vauxhall Ventora, in outback Australia
Photo courtesy Jon Mauleon
