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.

Roger continued his rally navigating for many years after this BP, including regular starts in the early 1970s Victorian Rally Championship events such as the 1972 Monash Midyear Rally with Neville Allenby in the Road Speed Racing Team Mk 1 Cortina.

Neville Allenby & Roger Baker in the 1972 Monash Midyear. Chris Brown pic

1968 Australian Alpine Rallye

In 1968 Rogers' father, Bob was Co-Director of the 1968 Australian Alpine Rallye run by the Light Car Club of Australia.  This was the final event of the 1968 Australian Championship, with Alpine Rally organising legend Bruce Ford, and Rogers' brother Leigh was an Assistant Director as well.

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 Bob 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

The Baker family rally world

The Baker family contribution to Victorian rallying continued for more than two decades, and this has been well documented at this time.

For me personally, Roger was a tremendous help as WICEN Radio operator and co-ordinator, usually based at Rally Headquarters acting as my ears to the world for most if not all the major rallies I organised in the 1980s and 1990s.  This included Victorian Rally Championship event, the Echuca based CCRMIT Rich River Rallies in 1981 & 1982 and then the CCRMIT George Derrick Rallies in 1985 to 1987 run out of Heathcote.

 

 

This was followed up by the Australian Rally Championship Alpine Rallies I was Director of in 1990, 1991 & 1992.  Reading through my event archives to research this blog I realised that Rogers son Jamie had also been involved as a WICEN operator in these events and was actually one of my Headquarters operators for the 1991 & 1992 events.

1990 Alpine Rally results credits

1991 Alpine Rally results credits

With the passing of Roger last week, it is a great opportunity to reflect on the contribution not only Roger but three generations of the Baker family have contributed to Victorian rallying since the 1960s and in particular the Alpine rallies run both by the Light Car Club of Australia and then the Historic Rally Association over that period.

Tango Hotel Alpha November Kilo Yankee Oscar Uniform  -  Roger Baker

Credit Stephen Young for the phonetic alphabet sign off