The following account is based on the event report by Max Stahl and John Bryson in the November 1970 edition of Racing Car News.
Day One
The event began in front of a large lunchtime crowd in the Sydney Domain. A planned publicity rallycross stage at theASCC's Windsor raceway was cancelled. The transport took crews via Wisemans Ferry to Newcastle for a mealbreak. There were 20 sections from there to Port Macquarie and like the previous years they were categorised as A - competitive, B - easy and C - transport. The first A stage was Salisbury Gap which was cleaned by Ferguson, Green, Taylor, Harris, Older, Bond, Thompson, Cowan, Culcheth, Williams, McLeod and Herrman. Stahl's Renault broke a fanbelt and dropped 16, and was the beginning of more electrical problems. Two more short competitives took crews to a refuel at Gloucester. Main Creek cost major time loss for Horsely's Honda while Tubman's Triumph retired with a broken gearbox. Only Culcheth cleaned with six others down 1 minute. Terrible Billy saw Darlinton's Volvo hit a bank but continue largely unscathed, cleaning the stage along with Taylor, Cowan and Culcheth. Sue Ransom's Renault was not so lucky, losing a mudguard against a tree. Lidbury's Colt lost lots of time with electrical problems. Ferguson, Bond, Herrman, Janson and Watson each dropped one.
Culchth's Mini held a slender lead as the field headed north from Gloucester, but Taylor drew level on the next stage, Rawdon Vale, being the only car to clean. Seven others dropped one. Winkless crashed the Volvo in dust while Hodgson broke a stub-axle on the ex-Ampol Falcon. A friendly local was able to supply a replacement part for the Falcon, allowing Hodgson to continue after considerable time loss. After a refuel in Taree, two long forest stages remained for the night. The first through Kerewong Forest saw Herrman, Bond and Taylor drop 2 with Wilkinson, Elliott and Hilton dropping 4. Culcheth and Cowan responded on the Bulls Ground stage, both clean, with Bond on one. At Port it was Culcheth in the lead down 8, then Bond 9, Cowan 12. Herrman and Taylor equal on 13, Ferguson on 14 and Green 16.
Day Two
With only a nominated 15 minutes allowed for service after the restart, some crews would lose time on the transport north to Kempsey, including Stahl who was in the workshop for 50 minutes attending to the fan belt and electrical issues. In the end they only dropped 14 minutes into Kempsey. The serious competition began west of Kempsey with the long "Seven Mile Climb" stage of almost 40 miles. The Minis of Culcheth, Cowan and Green were clean with the Toranas of Bond and Ferguson down 1. McLeod was next best on 3 in his Datsun 1600. Two forestry stages on narrow and somewhat overgrown tracks saw Cowan and Herrman fair best, dropping only one each with Ferguson, Bond and Laing down 2 then Singh, Green and Older on 3. The Neaves Road stage west of Dorrigo was 9 miles in 12 minutes and seemed innocuous but had a horribly deceptive tightening left hand sweep. Taylor was first to succumb to the tricky corner but stopped inches short of a rockface, allowing Bond to get by and into the dust free first on the road. Culcheth then got by but Herrman was in his dust and crashed, taking out his driving lights, a guard and bending the suspension. Watson also succumbed and did some damage, losing even more time. Cheeseman went over the edge and despite the crew being OK and teh minimal damage to the car, a winch would be required for retrieval. Best were Green and Cowan down 5, then McLeod, Thompson, Bond and Steer on 6, fairly big losses for a 12 minute stage over 9 miles. Culcheth, Harris and Older all lost 7 together with Lloyd and Ossie Jackson. After a service point in Dorrigo came the long Corfes Road stage which was narrow and rough but incredibly, Cowan only dropped 3, then Culcheth on 4, Green and McLeod on 5. The short Lowanna stage followed with Bob Riley joining most of the leaders down 2 but Cowan had only dropped one. Up Coldwater Creek to Nana Glen had some tricky and slippery sections with Riley again shining, sharing the best time of 2 with Bond. Cowan and Culcheth dropped 3 with Green, Lund and Harris on 4. Crews headed to Grafton for a well earned mealbreak.
After Grafton some easy sections lead crews back towards Coffs Harbour. The tight 28 mile Green Bluff stage then included a difficult creek crossing saw Ferguson come to the fore down 8 then Cowan, Elliott and Riley down 9. Culcheth down 10. Stahl did well to drop 12 with most others dropping 15 or more. Only one other short section enroute back to Port Macquarie took time of most crews. The overall positions were Cowan 35, Bond and Culcheth 37, Ferguson 45, Green 49, Harris 56, Elliott 63, Jackson 75, Riley 70 and Lloyd 73. The Stahl Renault had engine problems and would need a rebuild, so they would miss the third night. Laing's Datsun needed a new windscreen after being hit by a falling tree branch and Mullins' Daihatsu had major gearbox issues.
Day Three
The third night began with a generous one hour service period which allowed for a lot of work on the duelling Minis and Toranas, including a complete new front end on Bond's car. The field then headed to Wauchope and to the first serious stage west of Comboyne. At almost 28 miles in 39 minutes, the Kerriki Creek stage took 7 minutes from Culcheth, Green and Ferguson, with Cowan on 8 and Hodgson on 9. Arthur Jackson dropped 11 with Riley, Hansen and Lunn on 12. Tobins Camp was similarly tight but Cowan responded, dropping 3 with Bond, Ferguson, McLeod and Constantinides down 4, the tight conditions suiting the smaller cars.
After Tamworth there were two highly competitive stage on the way back to Port, Oakbourne and Rollands Plains. Williams crashed into some trees and Arthur Jackson landed in a creek. Culcheth struck trouble with a burst heater hose which then lead to a blown head gasket, ending his chance of a good placing after a brilliant drive. The overall positions back at Port were Bond 55, Cowan 59, Ferguson 66, Green 70 then Harris equal with Older on 87, Taylor on 95, Elliott 100, Houghton 101 and Ossie Jackson on 103.
Day Four
Sixty odd cars headed out of Port Macquarie to tackle the remaining 400 miles of competition of which rally Director Lawson boasted that the final 122 mile stage would be the roughest and toughest ever seen in any rally! The action got under way west up the Oxley Highway with the first 20 mile stage north of the highway then a monster 43 miles southwards into the Dingo Tops. Most of the leaders cleaned the first one, with Cowan down 3 on the second one followed by Arthur Jackson on 4 then the Toranas of Bond and Ferguson on 5. But Bond was in trouble with the exhaust ripped off the Torana and new speedo drive. Cowan moved into the lead 10 minutes ahead of Ferguson. But it was Cowan's turn for disaster on the next stage southwards towards Wingham. As he braked for the stage end nothing happened. Cowan flung the Mini sideways but it hit a bank and ripped off a rear heel. Culcheth arrived and the service crew cannibalised his car to fix Cowan's but it took an hour to make repairs and the game was over. Bond had made repairs and took a short cut to maintain his position on the road ahead of Green. Taylor clouted a bank with the Austin while Hazel Phillips rolled Sue Ransom's Renault. Hilton had cleaned the stage with Green on 3 then Ferguson and Cowan on 4. The short run along Black Flat Lane took 2 minutes off most of the leaders. The 25 mile Pillochri stage then took crews through fairly open country to the mealbreak at Gloucester but only Ferguson and Harris cleaned.
With only a couple of minutes between Ferguson and Green, either could win the event with "just" the long 122 mile "horror" stage to the north-west of Gloucester. The tracks were mostly marked as being suitable only for 4WDs and included precipitous climbs and descents, numerous gates, many creek crossings and lots of mud. in the end, only 16 cars completed the stage within late time. Ferguson became bogged at one point and Green had to stop to assist. But the Mini was now bogged and Ferguson had departed, because they could not see out the back due to the thick mud and assumed the Mini would continue. Both lost significant time but Ferguson took 10 minutes off Green and won the event. The time losses were indicative of the difficulties competitors faced. McLeod did best on the stage dropping an amazing 52 minutes to climb up to an unexpected third place, then Wilkinson on 58 who climbed to sixth, Harris 72 to secure fourth place and Ferguson, equaled by Rex Lunn on 87 then Lloyd 88, Green 97, Older 102 and Charlie Lund 114. Bond lost a massive 160 after short cutting and missing several passage controls.
