MG Motoring 2018 November 2018 WEB-opt | Page 40

MG Car Club of South Australia A SALUTE TO GARY CHAPMAN From Peter Coulson , Friday 12th October at the Clubrooms One of the greatest rally navigators. From 1956, in a motorsport career span- ning more than 20 years, Garry Chap- man competed in the toughest marathon and trials events with many of the world's greatest drivers. Arguably the best navigator Australia has ever seen, Gary was also a successful driver. He is a South Australia and most of all, a member of the MG Car Club of SA. pete in the original London-Sydney Marathon and legendary around Austra- lia Trials. competing in MG TC in 1956 Garry was interviewed by our Club Pa- tron and rally champion, Ed Ordynski. The interview questions and answers covered topics such as, events com- peted in 1956, BP Rally 1959, did you prefer driving or navigating? Garry didn't mind doing both. Garry went over some of the many high- lights of the London-Sydney Marathon. Of particular interest was doing recce of the route through the Flinders Rangers in a MGA. Doing the rally didn't involve all driving as the cars were ferried across conti- nents by plane. Also the cars and driv- ers travelled by ship from Bombay to Perth. We heard what it was like to sit along- side rallying greats like Paddy Hopkirk, Erik Carlsson and Harry Firth or com- 38