The Volvo Entries
There were seven Volvo's entered in the Marathon, four from Australia and three from the UK.

Although a couple of oil companies sponsored the event by providing supplies, AMOCO Australia Pty. Ltd. was the only oil company to sponsor any cars and these happened to be all Volvos.

Car 8 AMOCO Australia Ltd. Australia Volvo 144S P.H. Winkless
Car 12 TVW-7, Daily News, Perth Australia Volvo 144S K. Tubman
Car 13 J.G. Tallis Gt. Britain Volvo 123GT J.G. Tallis
Car 25 Chesson Lydden Circuit LaTrobe Bradfield Stadium Gt. Britain Volvo 122S J.H. La Trobe
Car 33 Miss E. Gadd Gt. Britain Volvo 145S Estate Miss E. Gadd
Car 43 AMOCO (Aust) Pty. Ltd. Australia Volvo 144S A. Welinski
Car 63 AMOCO (Aust) Pty. Ltd. Australia Volvo 142S R.J. Holden

At 8 pm the big Volvo estate wagon driven by the girls of the Elsie Gadd team rolled into Parc Ferme at Warwick Farm to win the ladies' prize. The girls, Jennifer Tudor-Owen, Sheila Kemp, Anthea Castell and Miss Gadd reached Warwick Farm one minute after their guardian angels, Max Winkless and John Keran in the AMOCO Volvo. Winkless, who lost more than 10,000 points at Belgrade, shepherded the girls across Australia to lead them into Warwick Farm.

Winkless and Keran had planned to storm across Australia and lead the field on the road into Warwick Farm, but they came across the Volvo girls in Western Australia and realised they could help them. Between Perth and Sydney, Winkless and Keran worked on the girls' car, sacrificed their own battery when the girls' unit went flat, and showed them how to drive on special stages.

AMOCO team manager, Lionel Barnes said: "Max took them under his wing and got them driving to team orders. He is one of Australia's most experienced drivers and if they learn just a quarter of what he tried to teach them, they must have been in a better position to make the finish line."

The girls finally went down 2,399 points - enough to make them 41st outright but first in the Ladies' Category. They won from Rosemary Smith and Lucette Pointet on 6,139 points in their Ford Lotus Cortina.

Max Winkless and John Keran were not quite so fortunate. After sacrificing more than 3,000 points chasing HIS girls, he was 55th outright - second from the end.
John Smailes.
Winkless and Keran shepherding the Volvo girls team across Australia
Photo courtesy John Smailes and David McKay
Car 43 Volvo 144 S Andrew Welinski and Gerry Lister
Photo courtesy autopics.com
Car 12 Volvo 144 S Ken Tubman and John Forrest
Photo courtesy autopics.com
Ken Tubman
Max Winkless
Jennifer Tudor-Owen, Sheila Kemp, Anthea Castell and Elsie Gadd
Photo courtesy Daily Express Magazine
Max Winkless inspects the engine of car 8 his Volvo 144S
Amoco sent three Australian-based Volvo 144S's which they sent to Sweden for modifications. Theirs was the only oil company entry, although oil companies, particularly Castrol and Shell, made elaborate plans to service and fuel the cars on their 10,000 miles ordeal.

Amoco's team included former Commando, Andrew John Welinski; Gerry Lister, director of British and Continental Cars; Bob Holden, one of Australia's top race and rally drivers; Lawrence Graham; Max Winkless, veteran of five round Australia trials; and John Keran, BP Rally winner. Keran and Max Stahl, also a Marathon driver, scored Australia's first success in an overseas rally when they won the 1967 New Caledonian Safari in Noumea, driving a Volvo.
Alan Sawyer
Car 8 Winkless and Keran illegally showing their number in Italy
Photo courtesy John Smailes and David McKay
Car 25 Volvo 122 S driven by J.H. La Trobe
Photo courtesy Daily Express Magazine
Car 13 Volvo 123 GT driven by J.G. Tallis of Great Britain
Photo courtesy Daily Express Magazine
According to Ken Tubman, the roundabouts leading into Le Bourget were swamped in a confusion of car lights as drivers became increasingly lost. "You could drive up to any intersection and see lights coming at you from all directionsm," Tubman said. "We saw one competitor several times...and each time he was coming at us from a different direction."

At Le Bourget, car 43 Volvo 144S Australian entry, Andrew Welinski, a refugee from war-torn Poland in the 1940's, was met by his ageing aunt in an equally ageing Bentley. She produced from the car, a hamper containing more champagne and caviar for Welinski and co-driver Gerry Lister.

The AMOCO entered Volvo of Winkless-Keran was sidelined with serious mechanical troubles only 90 miles from Belgrade. Initial reports indicated that a valve guide in their Australian Repco headed 144S bent and jammed a piston. Fellow Volvo drivers Ken Tubman and Jack Forrest (car 12 TVW - 7 Perth) who pulled up, could do nothing to help but leave tools and spare parts and speed on to make Istanbul on time themselves.

Winkless and Keran pulled the Volvo engine down by the roadside, then hitch-hiked back into Belgrade to get spare parts. Instead of getting spare parts, they were supplied, by the local Volvo dealer, with a complete car - a much used sedan. He then arranged for the two Australians to work on their car in a nearby workshop - an Iron Curtain Atomic Energy headquarters.

Scientists and guards gathered around the pair, offering help as they worked on the Volvo. Winkless had decided to use the new Repco head afer extensive testing - including a win by his partner Keran in the tough Rothmans' International Rally in Australia.
John Smailes
The Volvo's head returned almost 160 horsepower - an increase of nearly 20 horsepower over the conventional rally units. But Winkless's two AMOCO team mates both decided to use the conventional heads.

"Certainly the Repco has more power - but I'd rather have the security of known reliability," Gerry Lister said. Only Ken Tubman and Jack Forrest (car 12) opted to join Winkless with the Repco unit. After 26 hours solid work, Winkless and Keran stormed out of Belgrade well out of the Marathon on points, but determined to reach Bombay on time.
John Smailes

"It was awful", said pretty Anthea Owen, a co-driver in Elsie Gadd's Volvo 145S Estate, after running the gauntlet of the 175 rock-strewn miles from Sivas to Erzincan. Male drivers described the stretch a little more crudely but meant the same.

Anthea went on: "It was only thanks to Jenny Tudor-Owen who drove the stretch that we got through in one piece, and only 67 minutes late."

In India, the seething crowds were a cause of a smash involving Australian Bob Holden's Volvo. Entered by AMOCO, the car, no. 63, had done well from London and had lost only 34 points. Eighty miles from New Delhi the Volvo collided with an Army truck the crowds had forced off its own side of the road. Laurence Graham, 30, of Melbourne, who was driving, had to hit the truck or the spectators. There was nothing for him to do but go straight into the truck. The Army impounded the car for a time. Graham and Holden, 35, of Pymble, Sydney, were taken to hospital.
Alan Sawyer

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Bob Holden was flung into into the windscreen, slicing his nose to pieces. Graham suffered head injuries and a broken toe but was released from hospital three days later to catch the Chusan in Bombay. Holden flew home to Australia two weeks later after having his nose rebuilt by India's leading plastic surgeon. "The local police told me later that I should have aimed for the crowd," Graham said. "Apparently a truck is worth more to them than a few human lives."
John Smailes
Another AMOCO Volvo, driven by Winkless and Keran, arrived at New Delhi control with 14 minutes to spare after a non-stop four-day drive to catch the field. They were left in Belgrade where they had to carry out major work on the Repco-headed engine, developing almost 160 bhp.

Winkless and Keran were determined not to miss the ship from Bombay. Alone, after coming after the service centres had closed, they travelled 5,450 miles through snow and dust averaging 57 miles per hour. They made a $1,000 challenge to anyone else who could cover the distance in 94 hours.

The rebuilt conventional Volvo was capable of only 90 miles an hour against the Repco power thrust of 125. It was no wonder Winkless called the drive the most frustrating of his life.
Alan Sawyer
Three British Marathon drivers sold their Volvo 122S, car no. 25, at Southern Cross (WA) to a journalist covering the rally. The Volvo crew, rally veterans La Trobe, Chesson and Warner, sold the car as it was - with a conrod through the engine block - four miles out of Southern Cross. The four year old Volvo reached Bombay in 38th position, not bad for a car which had 260,000 miles on the clock and had been in four Monte Carlo rallies!

Volvo agents had warned the crew in Perth that the car had an oil leak and would be lucky to seen the Australian section through. They proved to be right and the crew went the rest of the way (to Sydney) by train.
Alan Sawyer
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At the same time, another Volvo pair, Bob Holden and Laurie Graham, were eliminated from the Marathon when their car ploughed under an Army truck 85 miles out of New Delhi. Holden and Graham were taken to hospital for emergency operations and plastic surgery.

After rebuilding their car's chassis in Indore, the three young girls and Elsie Gadd in the Volvo 145S estate wagon rolled into Bombay to receive a trophy from the Indian oil company for the gamest effort.

The Amoco Volvo of Max Winkless and John Keran, already out of the Marathon on points, had its gearbox severely damaged in the off-loading at Fremantle, Australia.
John Smailes
Ken Tubman and Jack Forrest charged into Port Augusta flat out, without brakes, after vibrating their master cylinders loose in Western Australia.

"We drove 600 miles with out anchors (brakes) to find there were no replacement parts at Port Augusta," the exhausted drivers said at Quorn. "So we drove on here to meet our service crew and fix them up."

The drivers had pressed on so well that they managed to take a long rest and have their brakes repaired without a loss of points.
John Smailes
Bob Holden
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The Ladies I How They Finished I BMC I Ford I Holden I Other Marques I Site Map I Memorabilia I Credits/About Us I Links