17/12/1968

Record updated

The London to Sydney Marathon Rally ended. Won by Andrew Cowan in a Hillman Hunter.

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Sydney, Australia...Andrew Cowan drove his battered Hillman Hunter into Warwick Farms Raceway, emerging a surprise winner in the torturous 10,000 mile London to Sydney Marathon Rally. Cowan won $20,000 first prize. Cowan, who was 6th at Bombay, India when the field boarded ships for Fremantle, Australia, gained the win when the Lucien Bianchi/Jean Ogier Citroen crashed head on into a Mini in the last 92 mile stretch between Nowra and Sydney. Belgium's Bianchi, a versatile driver who competed in F1, Sports Cars and Indianapolis during the '68 season, was trapped in the car for some time. He was later taken to hospital with serious head injuries. Ogier, who was driving the final stretch as Bianchi slept, suffered minor injuries that didn't require hospitalization. Roger Clark fought a fierce battle with Bianchi/Ogier during the Australian portion of the rally before finally retiring his patched up Ford Cortina just 400 miles from the finish with a broken differential. Earlier, another Cortina entry had been cannibalized to keep Clark in the running. Sponsored by the London Daily Express and The Sydney Daily Telegraph, the event was run in two sections. The first leg from London to Bombay was worth 2000 pounds to the winners, which was the Clark/Andersson Cortina.

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