The Gil Davis Rally Diaries
The Gil Davis Rally Diaries
Chapter One
Gil Davis asked me in late 2000 if I wanted to fill the Navigators seat beside him in the then Burnt Orange 180B SSS, complete with auto trans, taking over from his long-term Navigator David Long.
The first event was the 2000 Millennium Alpine Trial run by Gordon –
Trout – Douglas for the Albury Wodonga and District Car Club.
Strangely enough, nearly 25 years earlier, in the 1976 Kleber Alpine Rally
Gil Davis /David Long and Chris Brown and myself finished equal 8th.
The Millennium Alpine Trial was a different Alpine thou, more like an
Experts Trial rather than those Alpines between that Kleber Alpine Rally in
1976 and last one in 1994; being a night of difficult navigation, which was a
big wakeup call for me as hadn’t competed in many similar event for about 15
years!
What was obvious straight away was the Gil was a stubborn old rally
professional who would never give up and we finished in 4th place
finishing around 4.00am.
That stubborn determination I saw that long night was a common trait
that shone thru in the approx 30 events we competed in over the next 4 ½ years;
right up to his last event – the 2004 Olde BP Rally - which was another long
struggle with the very wet Friday night from Ballarat to Nhill.
We finished every one of the more than 20 events we did together, often dragging the 180B SSS home
on its coat tails or with rapid running repairs on the event making sure we got
to the finish.
Nothing ever dampens Gil’s spirit and competitive drive, and those 20+ events were some of my best rallying & motorsport experiences I have enjoyed.
Thanks for loaning him out Marcia Davis.
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| The last event for Gil and David Long, the 1998 Olde BP Rallye was a rare DNF |
Chapter Two
In late 2001, with the news that the HRA was to run an Alpine Rally based
in Bright just like the Alpine Rallies from the 60s until the early 90s, Gil
and I decided to turn his orange Datsun 180B SSS into a look alike of the Datsun
180BSSS he drove in during 1973 for the Bruce Wilkinson Motors run Datsun Rally
Team. This car was then used to win the 1973 Golden Alpine Rally by Frank Kilfoyle
and Mike Osborne.
It is not very well known that Bruce Wilkinson had offered Gil a factory
drive in the 1973 Southern Cross Rally with a new navigator in Monty Suffern.
Part of the deal was for Gil to build a new (Blue) 180B SSS for the event.
Then one Monday morning a few months before the Cross things changed when
Bruce and Gil had a “employment dispute”, and Gil arrived home mid-morning to inform
Marcia that he had walking out of the job and drive.
I will leave it to Marcia Davis to fill in the details!
Monty Suffern then suggested to Bruce that his regular driver, George
Fury, who was doing great things in Victorian rallying at the time in a Mk 1
Cortina, take over the preparation and Southern Cross drive. So began a great partnership, George and
Monty and the Nissan Datsun Rally Team.
To quote from Derek Rawson’s book, The Datsun Rally Team in Australia
”KP610 No.4 .. A fourth 180B SSS which ran as a semi-works car was a
locally sourced blue coloured 610 SSS… It was intended for Gil Davis/Monty
Suffern in the 1973 Southern Cross. Unfortunately (from one perspective) Gil had
to withdraw not long into the preparation, so Monty suggested George Fury would
make a good replacement.”
So back to the story; the 180B SSS looked the part at the start of the
2001 Alpine Rally resplendent in the Datsun Rally Team Red and Black complete
with Gold Enkei mags, but under the skin was still the stock auto trans 180B
SSS that had served Gil well for a few years.
There were great memories during those two years of rallying as well as the
comradeship of the HRA crews, a few things that come to mind:
Chasing Jeff and Matt Lee and Hilary Evans and Doug Fernie thru the
Goldfields scrub looking for elusive info boards - and maybe going on “silent running” after we
found a few not to give the spot away
A Murrindini Magic where the 180B went onto 3 cylinders on the climb up
to the Black Range Road and then still caught Jeffo Hale and Alan Baker Golf by
the control. Gil then jumped out, grabbed
his tool roll and had the problem – a cam rocker had fallen off (too many revs
maybe!) – fixed in under 5 mins.
The Dave Smith nightmare of the section in one Km square block with
about 10 vias in the pouring rain in one of his Nightstalker’s around Dunolly,
often meeting up with other crews at the same junction from opposite directions
several times which reminded me how much Gil hated crystal ball navigation in
his early days.
And then the 2003 Mirboo Meander which used the twisty roads of the
Grand Ridge Road area, where Gil bought the still auto trans powered 180B home
third place outright. I can still clearly remember how he had the 180B flying –
and sliding - down the last section along the snaking Morwell River Road very
late that night.
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| Gil & Simon at the finish of the 2003 Mirboo Meander - 3rd Outright |
The last two events of Gil and I were the 2003 Alpine Rally and 2004
Olde BP Rally before he finally succumbed to lung cancer in early 2005 and I
have covered them in the Eulogy I wrote for Gils’ Funeral in Feb 2005.
Chapter Three
I’m not retiring yet
Some of us
know just how hard a battle the Mallee Root Gil Davis faced with that cancer.
Gil was diagnosed
with lung cancer early in 2003 and soon after the news came that the infected
lung had to go. “Great” he said, “that’ll
save a few pounds”.
A week
after the operation he was out of hospital and back at work.
Why don’t
you pack up and go fishing in Darwin with Graham Skinny Toner? I said.
I’m not retiring yet
Retirement
was not a word Gil would accept and he knew he had a long marathon in front of
him to beat the cancer.
And he was
not retiring from rallying either.
Next up was
the 2003 Alpine Rally. The entry was in
without doubt, and it was to be a long event.
That Alpine
started off far from the norm with the old Datsun stopping twice and then a flat
tyre to boot! Gil was not going to let any of that stop him yet.
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| Gil & Simon in the 2003 Alpine Rally - John Doutch Pic |
Not a retirement yet
As night
fell, we headed into the Alpine high country.
“let’s see how we go” were our only words. The air in the 180B was heavy and it was to
be a long draining night.
We flew
through that first section from Timbarra to (near) Hinnomungie. Retirement was not a word that the Mallee
Root would accept.
Midnight at
Swifts Creek and Gil was on a high. “Only the last 125 km section to go”.
Up the long
climb along Angora Range we went and around 30 km in Gil said. “I need a leak,
the bladder ain’t what it used to be” A minute later, a flash of lights behind
and he was back in the car and we are off again, “Can’t let that car catch us
yet”.
An hour
later we arrived at the end of the 125 kms and Gil jumped out of the car; just
like Petter Solberg, and shouted jubilantly. ”I’ve made it”.
I’ve beaten
that cancer” he said to himself.
There were
a few more rallies over that last FJ Holden in the early 60s.
Gil’s last
rally was the 2004 Olde BP Rally in August, another marathon itself with that
long and wet Friday night.
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| 2004 Olde BP Rally Gil Davis & Simon Brown |
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| 1973 BP Rally Gil Davis & Peter Haas |
Not even an hour of stuffing around at Daisy Hill and then a thrown fan belt – fixed quick smart- with that his typical fervor – could dampen that spirit.
The Mallee
Root was in his Mallee home.
He was not retiring yet.
He
fought that word retirement right until his very last breath.
PS Don’t
give Hassy too hard a time you old bugger?
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| Gil having a chin wag with a Western District farmer - 2004 Olde BP Rally |
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| The 180B Rally Car at Gils Funeral in Feb 2005. |
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