SYDNEY-LONDON CLASSIC MARATHON RALLY 2014


The Sydney-London is tooted as a reverse direction re-run of the famous London-Sydney rallies from the 1968 and 1971 which were the pinnacles of long distance competition. Unfortunately, the present day interpretation is far from the  classic races. The 1968 original raced through Turkey to Iran stopping in Tehran, through Afghanistan stopping in Kabul, and through Pakistan to Delhi. The route then traveled through India to Bombay (now Mumbai), where the cars boarded a boat to Perth.

The content below is from the site's archived pages as well as other sources.

SYDNEY-LONDON CLASSIC MARATHON RALLY 2014

2 April to 11 May 2014

With 14 months to go, the organisers of The Sydney to London Classic Marathon Rally have announced that the first cargo plane - which will transport competitors' cars to Turkey from the end of the Australian leg - is now full.

With several people, who had previously expressed interest, recently confirming their intention to enter the event, together with several new enquiries, the organisers expect the second plane to become full before long.

In other breaking news, Hannu Mikkola and his son, Vesa, have joined the entry. Hannu competed on the 2000 London to Sydney Marathon with his other son, Juha, and returns to tackle the event in the opposite direction driving a Ford Escort RS1800.

Buy Back Deal: The organisers have put in place a buy-back deal for the Challenge Regularity Event, enabling entrants to fly into Sydney and pick up a BRAND NEW 4x4 vehicle, ready-prepared for the event. The vehicle can be purchased for AUS $36,000, and it would then be bought back for AUS $22,000 at the end of the event in London.

The Challenge Event is for any suitable passenger car, including 4x4 recreational vehicles, licensed for use on the public highway, with a crew of up to four people. Entrants will normally follow the same route as the Competition Event and will have regularity sections most days.

Entrants in both the Challenge and Competition Events can choose to do the whole route, or opt for either the Australian or European legs only.

Service vehicles are now permitted for the Classic Car Rally with "basic" and "premium" options available. "Basic" includes identification plates, service book, road books, daily bulletins and access to official car parks, but with no air or sea transport or hotels provided.

"Premium" Service includes all of Basic Service, plus hotels, and air and sea transport for a crew of two.

 

SYDNEY-LONDON CLASSIC MARATHON RALLY

12 APRIL - 11 MAY 2014
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Counting finished!

REGULATIONS AND ENTRY FORM

Foreword

The last London to Sydney Marathon organised by Nick Brittan’s Trans World Events was in 2004 and I was lucky enough to have been a competitor on that event.
Now to celebrate the 10th anniversary of that Event we are running it again in 2014 but with one major difference, we are going in the opposite direction – from Sydney to London. There are several reasons for adopting this direction not least of which is the difficulty of bringing into Australia dirty rally cars which need cleaning to pass importation rules whilst needing to maintain the strict timetable required by the rally.

We are also running two single Leg Events so there will be three Events in total: one for the Full Route, one for the Australian Leg and one for the European Leg. We think the Leg events will appeal to those with less spare time and for those unable to get an entry in the full event.

Route planning is progressing well with Regional Organisers appointed in most countries. We will keep you posted on developments via our website and newsletters will be sent to all competitors. Needless to say we will do our very best to bring you an Event that you shall remember for a long time to come and be very happy to have been part of.

As always when an airlift is required, it is important to fully fill the transporter planes and so we will be accepting the first plane full of entries and subsequent entries will go on a reserve list until the second one is declared full, we will then confirm acceptance of these entries. 

Any entries beyond this will be placed on another reserve list but they will only have their entry accepted should one of the accepted entries withdraw. The number of cars that two  Transporters can carry is dependent on the sizes of the cars but this is expected to be in the region of 95 cars. We have already received 130 expressions of interest, so you are advised to submit your entry without delay. 60 days will be given from the opening date of entries for competitors who expressed an interest to submit their application, after this 60 day period new applications will be accepted.

One other item to mention is the fact that we will be running a control tyre on the event, details of which can be found in Article 12. of the Regulations and further information will be given via bulletins in due course.

Enough said, this is the Big One, get your entry in. You know you want to.

Mark Solloway
Transworld Historic Rallying

 

 

ROUTE

The exact route and details of each night stop will be confirmed after the route survey that Mike Summerfield will be completing in April and May of 2013, ( The Australian route survey will now be undertaken by our newly appointed route coordinator teams, heading up the Eastern section is Phil Bernadou and the Western  section is being overseen by Ivar Stanelis, Mike Summerfield will produce the road book once all the stages are in place later this year) with the route having been revised from the original plan and now including just one airlift it has had the effect of actually increasing the stage mileage of the event with us expecting to have approx 2500 Kms of special stage mileage in total which will make it one of the longest special stage events in recent history.

Legs 1 & 2 (Australia) 7750 kms in total including stage mileage off approx 1133kms (33 stages).

12 days in total from Sydney to Perth, then Airlift out of Perth.

Legs 3 & 4 (Europe) 6000kms plus stage mileage of approx 100kms per day.

16 days in total with a half rest day in Rijeka (Croatia) then leg 4 to the finish in the UK.


 

DRIVER AND CO-DRIVER MATCHING

If you are a Driver looking for a Co-Driver or vise versa, please send us your details and we can add your details here:

Brian Canny  is looking for a Co-Driver to come along to share the trials and costs of the event, Brian has a choice of either using his Porsche 944 or his Peugeot and is undecided at the moment of which car to use, if you think you can partner up with Brian please make contact by email:  bcanny@vic.chariot.net.au

  • Brian James Hardie  is a Co-Driver available for this event.
  • Aggie Foster  is a Co-Driver available for this event.
  • Paddy Robinson is a Co-Driver available for this event..
  • Eloi Alsina is a Co-Driver available for this event.

Massimiliano Bosi is a Co-Driver available for this event

 

 

THE RED SHIRTS

The Redshirts are the legendary team of Officials who used to keep Nick Brittan’s TWE events ticking like a Swiss watch.    The most experienced, knowledgeable and user-friendly team in International Motorsport. They combine a firm hand administering the FIA regulations with friendly advice and encouragement to competitors.

Mark Solloway

There are also a few new faces in the group. One of those is the visionary Mark Solloway. Mark has been rallying for more than 20 years, from early beginnings in a Ford Escort on road events in West Wales, through competing on UK stage events, and the 2000 and 2004 London to Sydney Marathons and other long-distance events. From that background, Mark and his team are now recognised and respected, in both the Historic Rally scene in the UK and Europe, and the WRC, as the finest builders of Historic Group 4 Escorts in the sport. (GB) 

Bill Danbury

Another new face is a veteran of Classic Plus, where Bill handled the development of the organization's complex custom software, which helped them become the leaders in the promotion and sale of vintage vehicles especially lorries and vans from pre 1930. The generic software solutions currently available are not able to address the specifics that collectors search for when researching vintage autos. The problem was solved by working with scores of collectors, getting data points from a questionnaire, and then creating a unique custom software development solution tailored to the searches. He's an expert collector of Bugattis and often speaks at collector clubs and auctions. He also writes a column in Vintage Run Magazine where he also handles some editorial duties.

 

ronRon Jackson

TWE's Rally Manager and on the events runs the HQ office and the results service which provides a daily record of who did what, when and where to the second. A previous International Clerk of the Course and a regional organiser, assistant Clerk of the Course and Chief Results Officer on Britain's round of the FIA World Rally Championship. (GB) ron@transworldhistoricrallying.com

 

 

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