Car 91 Madden's HK Holden
Photo courtesy Brian Lemon
Car 91 Maitland Motors, Australia, Holden HK Auto. J. Murray
Rear axle problems for 'Milko' Murray again
Photo courtesy John Smailes and David McKay
Mechanics hard at work on the offending axle
Photos courtesy John Smailes and David McKay
"Milko" Jack Murray, of Maitland, went searching in Delhi for a replacement axle for his Holden HK automatic, as his own had given out for the third time only 800 miles from Bombay.
"Who would own a Holden in in Delhi?" asked Murray. Not the Australian Embassy, it seemed. Reports said their official cars were Fords. A Holden was found, owned by the Indonesian Ambassador to India, who was only too pleased to save the day for Australia's Murray.
Alan Sawyer
Murray and his co-drivers, Bert Madden and John Bryson, had nothing but bad luck since they stopped to help young Doug Morris from under a car on the Sivas-Erzincan special stage.
"After we pulled Doug out, we reached the control but bent our differential assembly on the way," Murray said. Between Erzincan and Delhi we broke three axles.
The first went at Erzincan but we had a spare and it took only three hours to replace it. The second broke at Kabul and we took almost a full day to weld everything up and continue. Then the bastard broke again at New Delhi and we were finally bushed until the diplomat came along.
We searched everywhere and couldn't find a replacement - and the old axle was too far gone to repair.
"We were about to cable our retirement to the organisers when Mr. Ibraiham Noeri, a senior Indonesian Consulate official arrived with the only other Holden in Delhi.
Before I realised what he was doing, Mr. Noeri had arranged for the axle to be taken out of his three day old car and put into mine."
John Smailes
Interior of Madden's HK Holden
Photo courtesy Brian Lemon
The 3 crewmen discussing their axle problem with a local Iranian policeman
Photo courtesy John Smailes and David McKay
Despite their continuing rear axle problems into New Delhi, India, 'Milko' Jack Murray and his co-drivers Bert Madden and John Bryson arrived safely at Warwick Farm Sydney, to finish in 54th place with a loss of 11,646 points.
'Milko' Jack Murray (the other Jack Murray)
Photo courtesy Daily Express Magazine
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