Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four February 1980

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The 1980 World Rally Championship WE WOULD be less than honest if we were to suggest that the selection of qualifying events for the 1980 World Rally Championship was based on merit. On the other hand, the Statute Book rather prevents us saying what we would like to say, so you must draw your own conclusions. In the eyes of the FISA the World Championship for Manufacturers is more important than the World Championship for Drivers, but happily most other people take the opposite view. When they dropped the Swedish Rally and the Rally of the Thousand Lakes from the manufacturers’ series they were snubbing two highly significant events held in the two countries which have produced more of the world’s leading rally drivers than the rest of the world put together. However, the FISA threw what they considered to be a few pacifying crumbs in the direction of these two events by including them in the drivers’ series which, ironically, is now considered the more important of the two series — and rightly so. The World Championship situation, then, is a twelve-event series counting for drivers’ points and a ten-event series for manufacturers’ points, a list of which appears in these pages. The international calendar as a whole contains 305 events spread through the territories of 45 countries. As usual, the most popular time for rallies is the Autumn. September and October containing 75 international rallies throughout the world. However, more interesting than a calendar division is the way these international events are divided between the various countries. International status is costly, for FISA fees have to be paid, as well as higher insurance rates. Some countries are therefore content to run large programmes of national events, for it would be false economy to go for the prestige of international status if it is not likely that foreign competitors will be attracted. In Kenya, for instance, the only international rally is the Safari, but there are many other events in the Kenya calendar which, by reciprocal arrangement, are open to competitors from neighbouring countries. Another is New Zealand, where the Motogard Rally stands out as the only international event in a series of nationals. Occasionally one notices a change of policy by national clubs, and whereas a country may have only two or three internationals one year, it has a whole string of them the next. Sweden has gone the whole hog this year and has put no less than 59 rallies up to international status, whereas last year they only had a small handful. France comes next with 41, then Germany with 38, Italy with 22, Belgium with 18 and Spain with 16. Britain, which probably has more rallies than most countries in the space of a year, only has seven registered with international status, whilst in Eire there are only two internationals even though there are plenty more nationals. In the USA there used to be just one event at international status, for very few US-made cars have been homologated, and it would hardly be right to expect US competitors to use only imported cars in order to comply with the FISA’s homologation requirements. However, this year the number goes up to twelve, and there are twelve more in Canada, plus three in Mexico. South Africa, where extremely good rallies are often contested by European professionals engaged to drive for local works teams, has five of its national championship events at international status, the Soviet Union still has one in the list, whilst a completely new one is the Himalaya Rally which India is organising in October. The latter offers some pretty exciting potential, for the terrain is extremely demanding and has never before been used for an international rally, although a few of the trans-globe events have passed through India on their way to distant destinations such as Sydney. For the travelling rally man who prefers competing elsewhere than in his home country, the calendar offers events which can satisfy almost every taste, and a complete list was published on January 17 in our weekly stablemate Motoring News. — G.P. All the events listed are qualifiers in the Drivers Championship, and all but the Swedish and the 1000 Lakes are qualifiers in the Manufacturers’ Championship. 19
FORD’S SABBATICAL IT is just over 20 years since Ford’s fortunes were rejuvenated by the introduction of the o.h.v. Ford Anglia. Since then the Dagenham end of the Detroit-based company has won just about everything worthwhile in racing and rallying, a motor sporting policy which has transformed the company’s image and sales. Most of the successes have come from the Anglia’s successor, the Escort, introduced in 1968. Now the Escort is nearing the end of the line, shortly to be superseded by the frontwheel-drive Erica Eurobox. Ford see this major product change as a sensible time to stand back to take stock of the situation and in this first year of a new decade the Competitions Department at Boreham will take a sabbatical, devoting its time to development of existing and future models. So the 1979 RAG Rally saw the last appearance of the works Escorts in international rallying. There is nothing like going out with a blaze of glory; that climactic season was one of the Escort’s most successful, with outright victories in five international events, leading to the World Rally Championship lor Manufacturers, with works driver Waldegard taking the Drivers’ title in the year of its inception. Wins in three British events brought Ford the Manufacturers’ category of the British Open Rally Championship and many other titles, including Malcolm Wilson’s second consecutive Castrol/Autosport Championship. The list of the Escort’s major world-wide successes in 1979 handed out at Ford’s annual Motorsport Press Conference in January covered no less than 12 sheets (interspersed with some good results for the Capri 3.0S), a record which illustrates just how difficult a job Ford will have to find a replacement competition car. The Escort has been a winner since the word “go”, with Barrie Lee achieving a memorable victory in its televised competition debut, in a rallycross in 1968. There is little doubt that this most successful rally car of all time has many more victories ahead of it in private hands. The Escort competition programme was but one of the perspicacious decisions taken by Ford in the 1960s. Another was the decision to back Keith Duckworth with development of the DFV Formula One engine. In 1979 the DFV won eight of 16 Grands Prix, four of them with the throttle slides controlled by Alan Jones, and notched up its 125th win. What more can one say? For “Ford’s decisions” one should read “Walter Hayes’ decisions”, for it was he who was largely responsible. Hayes was uncharacteristically absent from the Conference, being based now in the USA as the first British vice-president on the Ford main board. With the Ford name predominating in almost every form of British motorsport, from Club driving tests to Aurora Formula One, one cannot help but wonder what the state of the game might have been had it not been for Hayes’ commercially sound enthusiasm. Boreham’s sabbatical doesn’t mean a complete withdrawal from motorsport in 1980. At the Conference, Competitions Manager Peter Ashcroft and Director of Public Relations Stuart Turner outlined plans. In racing, Ford will continue to support Gordon Spice and Stuart Graham, who will man 3-litre Capris in the Tricentrol British Saloon Car Championship. “Mr. Mini” himself. 1979 British Saloon Car Champion Richard Longman, has been lured away from the Leyland marque to drive and prepare a 1.6 Fiesta for the Championship and to run a 1.3-litre version for another erstwhile Mini driver, Alan Curnow. Boreham mechanics will prepare a Fiesta for 1979 Faberge Fiesta Championship winner Geunda Eadie to run in the Tricentrol series. As previously announced in MOTOR SPORT, a Fiesta Racing Championship will replace the old Debenhams Escort series. The new Championship, jointly sponsored by Debenhams and Ford’s Rallye Sport Division, will be for 1.6-litre Fiestas (a version sold in the USA, and likely to be available in the UK sometime this year), prepared to slightly modified Production Car Racing Regulations. On the international front, Ford of Cologne will campaign a pair of 800 kg. turbocharged, space-frame Zakspeed Capris in the German Group 5 Championship. Klaus Ludwig, 1979 German Group 5 Champion in a Kremer Porsche, will have a 2-litre, 600 b.h.p. version and former Champion Harald Ertl will run a 1.4-litre car. In rallying, Malcolm Wilson will receive works support to contest the British Open Rally Championship in an Escort RS. Tim Brise will drive a Boreham built and supported, Haynes of Maidstone-run, Group 5, 2.0-litre Fiesta in the Castrol/Autosport Championship as part of Ford’s development programme. As part of Turner’s quest for another Pat Moss, Louise Aitken, the young Scot who dominated the final rally rounds of the 1979 Faberge Championship, will run a Fiesta with support from Boreham. Barry Lee will remain faithful to Escorts, with Boreham backing, in his Hot Rod programme, but in the European Rallycross Championship Ford Competitions will support a Fiesta for Trevor Hopkins. Turner has always been a firm supporter of what he terms “the grass roots of motorsport”, the local Motor clubs, and has directed part of Ford’s 1980 budget in then direction. Three new training films. “A Ford Guide to Motorsport Marshalling”, “A Ford Guide to Rally Driving” and “A Ford Guide to Co-driving” are aimed at educating club members in those various “arts”. Ford will co-operate with the RAC Motorsport Training Trust to help train marshals, using the film, a new book on event organisation and sponsorship of a series of naming seminars. Motor clubs will be offered free publicity material to help with membership drives. A question and answer session gave Keith Duckworth a chance to bang on about his theories for a new Formula One engine formula in the light of the energy crisis. The man behind the Cosworth DFV feels that “I’m using my talents to develop engines which are against the will of the world . . . motor racing should speed development of energy saving engines, but turbocharged engines are more fuel wasting than the current normally aspirated engines.” Duckworth considers that the regulations encouraging a quest for more power per litre are against the interests of the world and energy conservation. The suggested Duckworth formula is based on power per lure of fuel consumed, with no swept volume capacity limit. “A fuel flow restriction of 20 c.C.s. per sec. would 20
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Page 3 and 4: is more than twice as dangerous as
Page 5 and 6: and Swedish F3 driver Stefan Johans
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Page 11 and 12: acing a white, low-chassis. 100 m.p
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Page 15 and 16: in a taxi, on a day of visits to hi
Page 17 and 18: layer of leather. The lid was then
Page 19: THE BANDAMA RALLY A TITLE collected
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Page 27 and 28: Fitzpatrick’s opinions of the mac
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Page 31: the International Sporting Code and

Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four February 1980

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