Rally round the state

By Kim Brooks
FORTY-FIVE historic cars left the Cardinia Club on Thursday to travel over 2000 kilometres in four days, from Pakenham to Ballarat.
The BP Ultimate Rally of South Eastern Australia course takes the cars over a variety of roads and tracks, from the mountains to the Mallee. The cars left Pakenham at 6pm on Thursday and finished in Ballarat about 3am on Sunday.
The BP Rally was last held in 2008 and has been running for over 50 years. It takes hundreds of people to organise and run the event. Vehicles must be manufactured prior to 1986 and rally in five categories, from pre-1967 to pre-1986.
Roger Lee, from Mooroolbark, drove his 1966 fuel-injected Triumph in the rally, with his son Mathew Lee navigating. Mr Lee has been involved in car rallying for over 40 years.
He said a very old friend got him involved. “I entered a rally back in the ’60s and the bug got me.”
Mr Lee bought his Triumph “way back in the ’90s” and built it into the beautiful machine it is today by adding things like navigation gear, roll bars, lights and good seats.
At 65 years of age Mr Lee has not raced for three years because of illness. The weekend’s rally was the first in a long time and not one he wanted to miss.
“This is a very special rally,” he said.
The Historic Rally Association organised the event, which brings the big guns out to play. The race attracts a few very excellent rally drivers and champions, Mr Lee said.
“They come out of the woodwork to compete in this race.”
Graham Thompson, who raced in the famous Monte Carlo Rally in France, came all the way from Canberra to do the rally in his 1981 Volvo 244GL.
“The car cost $200 and we paid $1000 to get it ready to race,” Mr Thompson said. Last time the car was in the rally it burst into flames and still finished first in its class.
Ian Fulton made the drive to Pakenham in his 1974 HQ Holden Kingswood. He was happy the rally ended in Ballarat, his home town.