Updated on
10 March 2012.

RACV Great Australian Rally 2012

Sunday, 15 January 2012

Rallying For A Cure

This year we achieved an excellent display of eight-hundred-plus vehicles at Mornington Racecourse, on a perfect summer’s day. The start at the Westernport Marina at Hastings was certainly more popular this time around. For this year’s event, thanks are due to the Fairfax Community Newspaper Group for providing valuable publicity for the Rally, that certainly worked.

See photos taken by Mike Allfrey at Flickr.com

As a part of the promotion for the event, we were able to run a competition for a ride in an early Vintage Ventura bus (Charabanc) to the Mornington display area. The competition was over-subscribed and some consolation prizes were given to those who didn’t quite make it to the actual bus ride.

Right: The Vintage Ventura bus. Photo: Craig Douglas.

There were reports that the public carpark at the racecourse was full. This indicates the size of the crowd that the RACV Great Australian Rally attracted. In a special display area, there was a mouth-watering array of Veteran and Vintage motor vehicles. A favourite for the writer was a Vintage Sunbeam. There is something about the style and architecture of those Sunbeams that attracts.

Left: Craig Bennett (CEO Peter Mac) receiving the ABCCC’s donation.
This year’s RACV Great Australian Rally’s success was the result of a considerable amount of work put in by the Rally Advisory Committee. The success was such that we managed to raise $60,000 to hand over to our friends at Peter Mac Cancer Institute. This was done at a ceremony at the RACV Club on 5th March. Present in the photograph above are, left to right, Colin Brown (ABCCC, Rally Organiser), Craig Bennett (Peter Mac CEO), Tony Pettigrew (ABCCC President) and Professor Peter Chandler (President and Chairman of the RACV Board). Also present for this most auspicious occasion were Ron Pittard (Fairfax), Colin Moss (Fairfax), Brian Kelly (RACV), Gordon Oakley (RACV General Manager - Motoring and Mobility), Professor Lester Peters (Peter Mac), from the ABCCC were - Pat Douglas, Ray Higginson, Don Kinsey, Peter McKiernan, Nello Mafodda and Mike Allfrey.

Our achievement in raising such a sum on a one day event is something for which those club members who provided assistance on the day must be heartily thanked. In fact a grateful thank you goes to everyone who pitched in to make our result so notable.

Mike Allfrey - Hastings Start

See photos taken by Mike Allfrey at Flickr.com

The 2012 Rally Awards Results were as follows:

The Costume Judging results are available as a separate file.

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