Geoffrey Ian Portman

Vale Roger Baker - a tremendous Victorian Rally Servant

Most of the Victorian rally community are aware of Roger Bakers contribution to Victorian motorsport over many years with his contributuion via the WICEN radio network and the revolutionary “Pienet” radio network, but Roger was also a rally competitor and rally organiser of note during the 1960s and 1970s.

Here are a couple of highlights of earlier Rogers rally career I was aware of and have unearthed some more details since I heard of Rogers passing last week.

Roger Baker, centre, somewhere late at night on the 1965 BP Rally, with Jim McAuliffe to his right.

1965 BP Rally of South Eastern Australia

Roger competed as a navigator in the 1965 BP Rally, a BP rally that was both famous and infamous in media reports of the time and in Australian rally forklore.

A snip from a Pathe film shows Ian McKnight & Roger Baker with their Triumph 2000 at the finish at Chadstone Shopping Centre

A glance at the official results from the 1965 BP Rally show that Roger Baker came 32^nd in a Triumph 2000 driven by Ian McKnight the long-time manager of the Light Car Club of Australia no less.

This BP Rally was famous as the entry list included two factory SAAB 96 two stroke wonders that were setting the pace in European rallying at the time.  The crews were the husband and wife duo of Erik Carlsson and Pat (Moss) Carlsson with Australian navigators Gary Chapman and little known Shirley Scott.

And this BP was infamous for the difficulty of one control location - WATHE NORTH - in the mallee where many crews were stuck in a sandy paddock trying find the dot on the Broadbents western half from the directors intended direction.  Ross Runnalls attempt to have us find the same location in the 2010 also met drama with the set-up crew becoming bogged in that same Mallee paddock.

1968 Australian Alpine Rallye

In 1968 Roger was Co-Director of the Light Car 1968 

Australian Alpine Rallye the final event of the 1968 

Australian Championship with Alpine

Rally organising legend Bruce Ford.

Some notable points about this Alpine Rallye include.

1968 was the first year the Australia Rally Championship was held being won by Harry Firth & Graham Hoinville in a Ford Lotus Cortina.

This Alpine Rallye saw some major advancements in Australian rallying with Split Minute Timing being used on two short sections of road around Buchan something I don’t remember being used again in Victoria until the mid 1970’s

The route that Roger and Bruce produced for this year was a classic Alpine route that looped the Australian alps from Bairnsdale to Omeo, Hotham Heights, Mitta Mitta, Omeo, Suggan Buggan, Buchan, Tostaree before a return to Bairnsdale. 

The later parts of this route are well known to today's Alpine Rally competitors and organisers and I am sure some will feature in this years edition of the Alpine Rally.

The route - as mapped out by Ian Richards can be found here:

https://www.rally-maps.com/Alpine-Rally-1968

Tango Hotel Alpha November Kilo Yankee Oscar Uniform  -  Roger Baker

Credit Stephen Young for the phonetic alphabet sign-off