A story never told before

Exclusive report by Allan Chilcott ©

"I was the passenger in the car that was hit by the Lucien Bianchi Citroen during the running of the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon. I have said 'hit by' because I felt at the time, and still believe, that we were travelling on an open public road at a reasonable speed, in a safe manner when the accident happened.

We were aware that the Marathon was coming, in fact that was our reason for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We were a couple of 18 year olds who were big fans of motor-sport of all kinds. We were regular spectators at car races at Warwick Farm, Oran Park, Bathurst and Catalina Park.

We watched Hillclimbs at Silverdale, Robertson and Lithgow. We'd been involved in rallies by manning control points for car club events in country areas of NSW. We'd spent quite a few Saturday nights in the bush setting up controls, waiting for the cars to pass through and then making our way home in the early hours of the morning.

I'd competed in a few motorkhanas in my standard Mini 850 but due to the lack of money we had no opportunities to compete in the sport.

The car we were in was a white Mini Cooper S. I think it was the Mk11 with the oval badge on the bonnet but I can't be sure after all this time. The car was bought second hand by my friend, who I won't identify because I've had no contact for fifteen years and can't be sure he would appreciate his name becoming known.

He was at the time an apprentice electrician. The day prior to the accident he'd picked the car up from a BMC dealer after having new CV joints, new ball joints, and some other work done on the front suspension and brakes. This had brought the car up to a very good standard of repair.

We'd been following the Marathon through the newspaper and TV reports, but because we were both working and the Marathon was due to finish on a weekday we didn't expect to have any chance to see the cars.

My friend arrived at my house at about 9.30 the night before the accident with a great plan that we would drive to Nowra that night, sleep in the car, and drive out to the Tomerong to Braidwood Road the next morning and watch the Marathon cars come through.

The plan involved our mothers, (we were only eighteen remember) phoning our work and saying we were sick.

After some discussion and ignoring parental advice, we carried out the plan. The drive to Nowra was easy and we decided to go on to the Braidwood Road and sleep there. We were there by about midnight.

The next morning we arrived at what looked like a control point. There were twenty or so cars, a tent with Australian Army personnel with radio equipment and a group of people standing around the tent. We joined the group to find out what was happening. There was no way that we would have known who, if anyone, was in charge, or who was organising the control.

Apart from the soldiers, everyone else was in civilian clothing and gathered in the same group listening to the radio.

We heard via the radio someone saying that the cars would be through in an hour. We believed that this meant that the cars would be through the control we were standing in, in one hour.

Based on that message we decided to go five or ten minutes further up the road to a creek crossing. We expected to have more than enough time to get to the crossing before the cars came through.

I have no recollection of the impact but after the accident I had a clear picture in my mind of the road and of the Citroen coming towards our Mini. The road was narrow with a crest in the centre and no defined lanes for two way traffic. The usual practice on these country roads was to drive on the crest and move over when a car came the other way.

Today this type of road would be marked on maps as a minor dirt road.

Then it was an alternate route from the coast to the inland, but was only really a one lane road. I described the section of road to the police sergeant who interviewed me at the Shoalhaven District Hospital as curving to the left, with the Citroen appearing as if coming over a slight crest. The last thing I remembered was seeing the Citroen about 20 metres away.

The impact was front right corner to front right corner. Because of this I believe that the drivers just had nowhere to go on the narrow road. I can't estimate the speed of the Citroen but I know that the Mini was being looked after having just been picked up after having expensive work carried out.

We would have been driving at a reasonable controlled speed. We had always been seat belt users and this saved us from much worse injuries than we sustained. The impact caused my shins to make two round indentations in the Mini's parcel tray under the dashboard. My head came into contact with the windscreen going forward and then back into the B pillar and the seat belt bolt. I was unconscious and don't have any memory of the next few minutes.

The driver was trapped by the legs when the Mini's floor folded between the firewall and the B pillar. He had a wood rim steering wheel fitted, and in the crash his hands had shattered the rim, with the splintered wood slashing his forearms up to the elbows. The Mini's engine was pushed back against the firewall breaking the carburettors off the manifold causing a petrol fire in the engine bay.

I was unaware at the time but the next car through was Paddy Hopkirk who stopped to help. By some means the fire was put out. Some reports say the Mini was on its side when Hopkirk arrived but I can't confirm this. I've seen photos that show the wrecked Mini upright at the side of the road with the rescuers standing around but I haven't seen any photos that show the car on its side.

My next memory is being placed in the back seat of a Volvo, semi-conscious, to be taken to hospital. The accident site was about a half hour drive from Shoalhaven District Hospital in Nowra.

I remember being in the casualty section with a screen between my bed and the bed of Lucien Bianchi. I heard conversations in French and as I was drifting in and out of consciousness I didn't know what had happened to him. I also remember my friend in the next bed being given stitches in his forearms and how he let the doctor know how much they were hurting.

I was interviewed in the hospital by a police sergeant. In the typed record of the interview he'd spelt Mini as "Minnie". The hospital x-rayed my legs but not my head. I still wonder why they didn't x-ray my head because I wasn't fully conscious for another thirty six hours.

The total of my injuries were concussion, cuts and bruises to head, legs and arms, and friction burns and bruising to the chest and shoulder from the seat belt.

My friend's injuries were about fifty stitches in the forearms, a broken metatarsal in the right foot, cuts and bruises.

We had no contact with anyone from the Citroen team, were not questioned any further by the police, not spoken to by any news media, and were discharged from hospital to find our own way home. No organisers of the Marathon saw us in hospital or checked with us later to see what our injuries were.

The news of the accident reached our workplace immediately after our parents were contacted. My girlfriend at the time was told that we had been killed in the crash. After everyone at work thought we were killed, they were glad when they found out that we weren't, so we were welcomed back instead of being sacked for taking the sickie. We were off work for several weeks waiting for the cuts to heal.

The Mini was written off by the insurers and was bought as a wreck by a wrecking yard near our homes. We went to see the damage and my friend took some photos. The way Minis fold at that point between the pedals and the seat is a major concern that I've never forgotten.

The accident was obviously big news. Every paper and magazine had stories, but none identified the driver and passenger, and didn't list our injuries.

One Australian motor sport magazine carried the story describing us as drunken louts and hooligans. My friend's insurance company advised him that if this wasn't contradicted, action could be taken against us and the insurer by the Citroen team to recover their costs. We sued the magazine and settled out of court for what today would still be a small sum. The insurance matter was avoided and we heard nothing more from anyone.

Imagine the huge payouts involved if the accident happened today.

The cost of the accident to us was much less than it was to Bianchi and the Citroen team.

We've never told the story to anyone other than family and friends, probably because no one has ever asked.

We've also never seen it as anything to be proud of. It was an accident that happened because of a lack of information and a lack of control of the Marathon course by the event organisers. We sought no compensation and no publicity.

I met Andrew Cowan at a car club rally training session a few years later but I was reluctant to make myself known.

Lucien Bianchi as far as I know never made any adverse statements about my friend and I. He appeared to be able to take the attitude that anything can happen in a motor sport event and unfortunately in that case it cost him the Marathon win.

We were sad when we heard of his death a couple of years later. (It was actually the next year).

I hope that this story clears up the rumours that we were drunk or were out to cause trouble.

If there had been anything to indicate that this was the case the police would have found out from the witnesses at the control or from our condition in hospital."

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