2 – 3 SEPTEMBER 2023
2023 HRA Touring Championship Round 4
2023 Pro Rally Fabrications Standard Car Class Rally Championship Round 6
2023 is the 60th anniversary of Akademos 1963. Akademos ‘63 became known as the “Hell Trial” because of a combination of difficult weather, event length and challenging navigation. There were 24 starters and 12 finishers. Fords filled the first 4 places, with Frank Kilfoyle the winning driver in a Falcon.
Melbourne University Car Club’s 60th anniversary tour is designed to give you an experience of what Frank and the other competitors of his day faced in that Trial (except hopefully not the weather conditions) while being in a normal road car on bitumen and good gravel roads.
The event is officially a Navigational Assembly. You’ll be using the original route instructions which included 22 Sections, with amendments where necessary to suit current road conditions, and you’ll use the same maps as in 1963. In keeping with the 1963 theme, all distances in the route instructions will be in miles – and occasionally in yards. For those not keen on challenging navigation, alternative “easy” instructions will be available.
The event starts and finishes in Lilydale with an overnight stop at the Century Inn Hotel near Traralgon. There will be a buffet dinner for all 2-day competitors at Century Inn on the Saturday night, with 2 dinner tickets included in the entry fee. Total event distance is 365 miles. Those with limited time available can choose to participate on just one of the days.
In addition to MUCC members, members of the HRA, FFCC and NCCA plus invited members of other auspicious motorsport clubs are eligible to enter the event. The event will be a round of both the HRA Touring Championship and the HRA Standard Car Class Championship.
Of course, not all the minor tracks used in 1963 are still usable. Some have disappeared, some are inaccessible on private land, some subject to seasonal closure and others are now 4WD only. In any case, almost all minor tracks have been by-passed so that your “daily drive” will be suitable for the event. If taking on the navigational challenge of the event, you’ll still have to find the start of each unusable track to not be penalised for missing an information or redirection board.
As already noted, an ordinary road car will be suitable for the event provided it has tyres suitable for made gravel roads with occasional potholes and occasional sections of loose coarse gravel. Rally cars with substantial sign-writing are discouraged from entering – cars should look “standard” or close to it, as you will be passing through some residential areas.
In contrast to the original event, we aim to have 100% of the starters reach the finish. To achieve that:
- The weather remains in “the lap of the gods”. If the roads are wet, part of at least one section will be bypassed.
- The original event was conducted over one Saturday night. The 2023 event timetable will be less onerous, with the start being in Lilydale from 9am Saturday and a half way break in Traralgon on Saturday night, with tour dinner included. The second half starts from 9am Sunday to finish late in the afternoon in Lilydale, with a post-event gathering at the Olinda Park Hotel in Lilydale.
- The organisers remain astounded at how the competitors in 1963 used the available maps to find the correct route – they were indeed outstanding navigators. The tour is still intended to test the crew’s navigational skills but some assistance will be provided where finding the correct route would otherwise be very challenging and where changed road conditions mean that the original route can no longer be traversed. For those less navigationally inclined, there will be “Cruising Instructions” for each stage. Each envelope will contain clear instructions about how to traverse the stage and find the stage finish. Opening the envelope will of course incur a penalty.
- Most of the event will be on bitumen and major gravel roads. On one Section, approximately 1km of forest track must be used to get to the control but this track, provided it isn’t wet, can be traversed by careful driving in a normal road car. For other minor roads used on the original route, competitors are re-directed onto good roads via the use of additional route instructions and re-direction boards.
Crews may use ONLY the maps and instructions provided by the organisers. The use of any other maps is strictly prohibited. A compass is permitted (in fact, it is essential and we recommend you have a good one). A distance measuring device such a a Terratrip, Monit or Nikrite is permitted, provided it cannot display any maps or other location information than distance, direction and time. The use of any device or app that shows any map, latitude, longitude or other location information is strictly prohibited.
Saturday will have two optional rest breaks and Sunday one. At each rest break, it will be possible to buy food and drink at a local café.
Entries are open – see the Supplementary Regulations published below. Special awards will be made to crews in cars available in or prior to 1963.
David McKenzie
Clerk of Course
Email Enquiries to david at jandmck dot com
Instructions, maps and explanations
See Route Instructions, maps and explanations on the 2023 Akademos ’63 “Hell Trial” Tour page on Rallypedia.
Update regarding Amended Regulations
See news post Regs Amended for the Hell Trial Tour
Documents
Akademos ’63 “Hell Trial” Provisional Results, v2 (pdf)
Akademos ’63 “Hell Trial” Supplementary Regulations – Amended (pdf, 350 KB)
Akademos ’63 “Hell Trial” Entry form – Amended (.pdf)
Historic Rally Association 