2009 Rally Championship Winners

GRUNT WINS INAUGURAL CHAMPIONSHIP

The first year of the HTCAV Rally Championship was an amazing competition – 55 crews entering eligible pre-73 touring cars in the four Championship events. Of those, 11 crews entered two events and two crews did three events. By far the most popular event was Targa Tasmania, which 32 crews entered.

Experiened racer and Club member Steve Coad with wife Rachel started the year with a win in Targa Wrest Point with the orange Monaro and Tasmanian father and son Scott and Wayne Kent came second in the white Mustang with brother Drew Kent and Paul Krawczyk third in the Falcon GT.

The major event of the year is Targa Tasmania, which the Coads did not enter and the winner was young Paul Batten, whose epic drive in the Volvo PV544 to fifth overall in the Classic field – that’s up to 1981 – turned many heads. Runners up were Peter and Sari Ullrich in the Jensen CV8 followed by Drew Kent in the Falcon GT. Since Drew had also done well in the first round, he took over the Championship lead.

None of the leaders went over to Targa West which left Classic Adelaide as the decider. After a very gruelling and tragic event, the Ullrichs came through to win with Richard Woodward and David McCrow in their London-Sydney Monaro GTS runners up, some consolation after a year of illness and breakage.

So our inaugural Championship was decided.

In third place, based on their performance only in Targa Tasmania, was the father and son combination of Paul and Mike Batten. In second place was the gold 1971 Ford Falcon driven by Tasmanian Drew Kent and navigated by Paul Krawczyk.

And the winners? An English car with 7 litres of Yank out the front – Peter and Sari Ullrich have developed the 1963 Jensen CV8 from a derelict hulk to a feared rally competitor.

With its plastic body, the car weighs 1420 kilos, but the Chrysler 6.9 litre V8 delivers 630bhp to the flywheel and 800 Newton Metres of torque. If this sounds impressive, but with only Limited Modified Specification, ancient king pins and leaf spring suspension from an Austin Princess this is no easy car to drive on the edge along Tasmania’s testing rally roads.

Championship results can be found below and trophies were awarded as follows: Winners: Driver: Peter Ullrich. Navigator: Sari Ullrich. Car: 1963 Jensen CV8

Second place: Drew Kent. Paul Krawczyk – 1971 Ford Falcon GT Third Place: Paul Batten. Mike Batten – 1961 Volvo PV544.