# 1983 Australian Rally Championship

The 1983 Australian Rally Championship was a series of four rallying events held across Australia. It was the 16th season in the history of the competition.
Ross Dunkerton won the 1983 Drivers Championship and Geoff Jones took out the navigators honours for the year.

## Season review

The 16th Australian Rally Championship was held over four events across Australia, the season consisting of one event each for Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. With the series being reduced to four events for the year, the field split between two categories with the introduction of Group A cars and the lack of any factory backed teams, things did not look promising. This was compounded when the second round in Queensland was postponed twice due to inclement weather. However it was an interesting and hard fought season with Dunkerton taking out his fifth title and using three different cars and two navigators to do so. The navigator's title went to Geoff Jones who was with runner up to the driver's title Peter Johnson for all four events.

## The Rallies

The five events of the 1983 season were as follows.
| Round | Rally | Date |
| 1 | The Sunday Times Safari (WA) | 4–5 June 1983 |
| 2 | The James Hardie National Rally (QLD) | 16–17 July 1983 |
| 3 | Dunlop 2GO Rally (NSW) | 13–14 August 1983 |
| 4 | The Enka-Fill Alpine Rally (VIC) | 19–20 November 1983 |

### Round One – The Sunday Times Safari

| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
| 1 | Greg Carr | Fred Gocentas | Fiat 131 Abarth | 219.37 |
| 2 | John Macara | David Hatley | Datsun 1600 | 228.31 |
| =3 | Ross Dunkerton | Steve McKimmie | Datsun 1600 | 229.05 |
| =3 | David Officer | Kate Hobson | Mitsubishi Galant | 229.05 |
| 5 | Ken Joss | Leo Iriks | Datsun 1600 | 234.08 |
| 6 | Peter Thompson | Simon Scott | Datsun Stanza | 243.33 |
Group A
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
| 1 | Chris Brown | Noel Richards | Holden Commodore SS | 251.48 |
| 2 | Caroline O’Shannesy | Jill Davies | Fiat 131 Superbrava | 322.05 |

### Round Two – The James Hardie National Rally

| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
| 1 | Ross Dunkerton | David Kortlang | Datsun Stanza | 206.38 |
| 2 | Peter Glennie | Brian Smith | Datsun 200B | 209.24 |
| 3 | David Officer | Kate Hobson | Mitsubishi Galant | 211.22 |
| 4 | Peter Thompson | Simon Scott | Datsun Stanza | 216.53 |
| 5 | Murray Coote | Brian Marsden | Datsun 1200 | 218.03 |
| 6 | Wayne Bell | Dave Boddy | Toyota T18 | 221.02 |
Group A
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
| 1 | Peter Johnson | Geoff Jones | Mazda RX-7 | |
| 2 | Peter Lockhart | John Hall | Isuzu Gemini PF50 | |

### Round Three – The Dunlop 2GO Rally

| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
| 1 | Ian Hill | Phil Bonser | Ford Escort RS | 181.18 |
| 2 | Murray Coote | Brian Marsden | Datsun 1200 | 181.40 |
| 3 | David Officer | Kate Hobson | Mitsubishi Galant | 182.18 |
| 4 | Graham Wise | John Williams | Datsun 1600 | 184.18 |
| 5 | Clive Slater | Alan Stafford | Toyota Celica | 184.23 |
| 6 | Ron Cremmen | M Verrall | Datsun Stanza | 184.45 |
Group A
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
| 1 | Peter Johnson | Geoff Jones | Mazda RX-7 | 198.36 |
| 2 | Russell Worthington | Simon Kabel | Mazda 626 | 199.30 |

### Round Four – The Enka-Fill Alpine Rally

| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
| 1 | Ian Hill | Phil Bonser | Ford Escort RS | 4:04.57 |
| 2 | Hugh Bell | Paul Paterson | Datsun 1600 "Dazda" | 4:05.06 |
| 3 | David Officer | Kate Hobson | Mitsubishi Galant | 4:06.46 |
| 4 | Clive Slater | Steve Owers | Toyota Celica | 4:12.42 |
| 5 | John Berne | Bruce Fullerton | Ford Escort RS | 4:14.39 |
| 6 | Chris Wall | Jim Maude | Datsun 1600 | 4:14.46 |
| 7 | Rod Jones | Mark Blume | Datsun 1600 | 4:15.39 |
| 8 | Peter Glover | David Burns | Ford Escort | 4:16.13 |
| 9 | Steve Ashton | Bernard Peasley | Datsun 1600 | 4:16.28 |
| 10 | Barry Lowe | Ted Dobrzynski | Datsun 1600 "Dazda" | 4:18.09 |

## 1983 Drivers and Navigators Championships

Final pointscore for 1983 is as follows.

### Ross Dunkerton – Champion Driver 1983

| Position | Driver | Car | Points |
| 1 | Ross Dunkerton | Datsun 1600 Datsun Stanza Holden Commodore | 56.5 |
| 2 | Peter Johnson | Mazda RX-7 | 55 |
| 3 | David Officer | Mitsubishi Galant | 54.5 |
| 4 | Ian Hill | Ford Escort | 48 |
| 5 | Russell Worthington | Mazda 626 | 39 |
| 6 | Caroline O'Shannesy | Fiat 131 Superbrava | 35 |
| 7 | Murray Coote | Datsun 1200 | 26 |
| 8 | Greg Carr | Fiat 131 Abarth | 24 |
| 9 | Peter Lockhart | Isuzu Gemini | 23 |
| 10 | Chris Browne | Holden Commodore | 20 |

### Geoff Jones – Champion Navigator 1983

| Position | Navigator | Car | Points |
| 1 | Geoff Jones | (with Johnson) | 55 |
| 2 | Kate Hobson | (with Officer) | 54 1/2 |
| 3 | Phil Bonser | (with Hill) | 48 |
| 4 | David Kortlang | (with Dunkerton) | 44 |
| 5 | Gary Kabel | (with Worthington) | 39 |
| 6 | Meg Davis | (with O'Shannesy) | 35 |
| 7 | Brian Marsden | (with Coote) | 26 |
| 8 | Fred Gocentas | (with Carr) | 24 |
| 9 | Stephen Treadwell | (with Lockhart) | 23 |
| 10 | Noel Richards | (with Brown) | 20 |