1973 Press-on-Regardless Rally

1973 Press-on-Regardless Rally
25th Press-on-Regardless Rally
Round 11 of the 1973 World Rally Championship season
Host country  United States
Rally base Detroit, Michigan
Dates run 31 October 1973 4 November 1973
Stages 85 (549.15 km; 341.23 mi)
Stage surface Gravel
Overall distance 3,284.15 km (2,040.68 mi)
Results
Overall winner Canada Walter Boyce
Canada Doug Woods
Japan Toyota Motorsport
Crews 58 at start, 23 at finish

The 1973 Press-on-Regardless Rally (formally the 25th Press-on-Regardless Rally) was the eleventh round of the inaugural World Rally Championship season. Run at the outset of November in the State of Michigan in the United States, the rally was run entirely on gravel.

Report

Due to a combination of scheduling and location, the event was not attended by most European competitors. Giving teams only two weeks following the preceding Sanremo Rally to travel across the Atlantic Ocean, and then giving even less time for a return to Europe for the following RAC Rally in England, proved unrealistic for most teams, and in the event, only a few teams from Poland made the trip with their domestic Polski Fiat 125p vehicles. As it turned out, the event was primarily a local affair, with a Canadian, Walter Boyce, taking the win ahead of a field of American drivers.

In 1973, and for several years afterward, only manufacturers were given points for finishes in WRC events. With the teams focused on the prestigious RAC Rally upcoming, and with the year's championship already sewn up by Alpine Renault, the works teams did not make an effort to compete in the American leg of the championship. Toyota became the beneficiary as it was a Corolla that carried Boyce to victory, while other makes popular on the North American market filled out the ranks. Datsuns were particularly prevalent—especially the locally popular Datsun 510—and Polski Fiat was rewarded for their effort in making the trip by a finish in the points, but overall, the results factored little into the factory efforts for the championship.

Results

1973 Press-on-Regardless Rally results
Finish Total
time
Car # Driver
Co-driver
Car Mfr.
points
1 6 h : 58 m : 28.2 s 110 Canada Walter Boyce
Canada Doug Woods
Japan Toyota Corolla 20
2 7 h : 22 m : 43.2 s 116 United States Jim Walker
United States Terry Palmer
Sweden Volvo 142 S 15
3 7 h : 33 m : 36.0 s 105 United States John Smiskol
United States Carol Smiskol
Japan Datsun 240Z 12
4 7 h : 39 m : 1.8 s 114 United States John Buffum
United States Wayne Zitkus
United Kingdom Ford Escort RS1600 10
5 7 h : 45 m : 0.6 s 127 United States John Rodgers
United States Erik Brooks
Japan Datsun 1600 SSS
6 7 h : 57 m : 30.6 s 108 Poland Robert Mucha
Poland Ryszard Żyszkowski
Poland Polski Fiat 125p 6
7 8 h : 5 m : 4.6 s 123 United States Bill Dodd
United States Rudy Kren
United Kingdom Ford Capri 2600
8 8 h : 8 m : 12.0 s 130 United States Jim Callon
United States Gary Hays
Japan Datsun 510
9 8 h : 9 m : 28.2 s 136 United States Steve Dorr
United States Rick Andersson
Japan Datsun 510
10 8 h : 16 m : 12.6 s 121 United States Chuck McLaren
United States Doug Leverton
Japan Datsun 510
11 122 United States John Chalmers
United States William Potvin
Japan Datsun 510
12 8 h : 20 m : 47.4 s 117 Poland Andrzej Jaroszewicz
Poland Zbigniew Dziadura
Poland Polski Fiat 125p
13 113 Canada Gary Neil
Canada Don Ramsay
Japan Datsun 1600 SSS
14 8 h : 35 m : 58.8 s 160 Kenya Edgar Herrmann
United States Joe LeBeau
Japan Subaru GL
15 8 h : 39 m : 10.8 s 120 Poland Marek Varisella
Poland Janina Jedynak
Poland Polski Fiat 125p
Retired (accident) 104 Canada Taisto Heinonen
Canada John Bellefleur
Germany Opel Manta
Retired (mechanical) 106 United States Erhard Dahm
United States Tom Grishaw
United States Jeep Wagoneer
Retired (mechanical) 107 United States Gene Henderson
United States Ken Pogue
United States Jeep Wagoneer
Retired (excluded) 109 United States Scott Harvey
United States Ralph Beckman
Japan Dodge Colt
Retired (accident) 112 United States Bob Hourihan
United Kingdom Geraint Phillips
Japan Datsun 1800 SSS
Retired (time barred) 147 United States Randy Graves
United States Ruth Heidel
France Alpine-Renault A110

Source: Independent WRC archive[1]

Championship standings after the event

1973 World Rally Championship for Manufacturers points standings after round 11
After round 11 Team Season end
Position Points Position Points
1 127 France Alpine Renault 1 147
2 84 Italy Fiat 2 84
3 46 United Kingdom Ford 3 76
4 42 Sweden Saab 5 42
5 34 Japan Datsun 6 34
6 34 Sweden Volvo 4 44
7 33 France Citroën 7 33
8 25 Japan Toyota 10 25
9 24 Germany BMW 8 28
10 24 Germany Porsche 9 27
11 18 Poland Polski Fiat 12 18
12 17 Italy Lancia 13 17
13 15 East Germany Wartburg 14 15
14 15 Germany Opel 11 25
15 14 Germany Volkswagen 15 15
16 13 France Peugeot 16 13
17 4 Japan Mitsubishi 17 4
18 3 Czechoslovakia Škoda 18 3
19 1 Germany Audi 20 2

References

  1. "Press-on-Regardless Rally". juwra.com. Independent WRC archive. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.