Kicking off on 27 October, the Perth to Sydney Marathon 2022 is retracing the Australian route of the famous London to Sydney Marathon of 1968.
Promoters describe the Perth to Sydney Marathon as ‘not your average Tour Event’, and they’re right. With more than 70 cars covering 5700km over 10 days through 22 rural properties, it promises to be every part the torture test presented by the original event 54 years ago. Despite the rigours expected, several vehicles entered in the 2022 event competed in the 1968 Marathon, which was won by a Hillman Hunter.
That’s right; despite entries from both Australia and the world’s foremost manufacturers, including Holden Dealer Team and Ford Australia, a plucky little Hillman reigned supreme. It was Scottish rally driver Andrew Cowan who famously tasked Rootes Group competition manager Marcus Chambers to “build me a car to come last”, believing that a low-stressed, solidly built marathon machine would be just the ticket to finishing the gruelling event, with a placing of any kind just icing on the cake.
Despite Holden and Ford both preparing cars already suited to the rigours of the Australian outback, they all placed behind the Hunter and an Austin 1800 headed by Northern Irish rally legend Paddy Hopkirk. The Holden Dealer Rally Team fielded a pair of HK Monaro GTS 327 coupes with backing from the Sydney Telegraph newspaper, which placed 12th and 14th respectively. Not a bad showing, but still behind all three of the Ford entries, which arrived in Sydney third, sixth and eighth, garnering the esteemed Teams’ Prize for their efforts.
The 1968 event was concocted over a boozy lunch, with little more premise than ‘a race across the world’, however the nature of today’s politics precludes recreating the gruelling, 7000-mile leg from Crystal Palace to Paris, Turin, Istanbul, Tehran, Kabul and Mumbai. Furthermore, it’s said that trials harboured in the Northern Hemisphere paled in comparison to what Australia had to offer. Entrants in the 2022 recreation face no mean feat to complete the Marathon, running from Perth to Sydney and taking in as many roads, checkpoints, and control locations as possible, to best reflect the original event.
In fact, organisers have secured all 58 of the official 1968 control locations and are attempting to give them all the ‘look and feel’ they would have had all those years ago, including some of the actual officials crewing the checkpoints! The 1968 event kicked off more events held in 1977, 1993, 2000 and 2004, along with two reverse-route Sydney to London Marathons in 2014 and 2019 respectively, and organisers have lined up several vehicles from those latter rallies.
The Perth to Sydney Marathon 2022 kicks off from Wellington Square before travelling north to Youanmi, south to Lake King, across the Nullabor Plain to Ceduna and Quorn before entering northern NSW, Victoria then NSW again, to finish at Warwick Farm on Sunday 6 November, meaning that Perth and Sydney residents are the only people able to spectate this grand event without skipping town.
Shannons is a proud sponsor of this historic endeavour, and wishes all participants, whether they be drivers, support crew or control point officers, a safe and memorable event.
PERTH TO SYDNEY MARATHON 2022
OCTOBER 27 – NOVEMBER 6
For more information, visit perthtosydneymarathon.com.au/
