Andrew Cowan’s works Hillman Hunter blasts through the never-ending and oh-so-demanding Australian scrub during the last, long, tough leg of the London-Sydney Marathon in December 1968…
I posted an article written by Bruce Thomas a while back featuring some of his photos, but I thought these too good to ignore, click on this link to see the article;
https://primotipo.com/?s=london+sydney+marathon
Andrew Cowan shared the drive with Colin Malkin and Brian Coyle, in some ways it was a lucky win but these ultra-long endurance events need a combination of luck, consistency, reliability, high levels of concentration for long periods, driving and navigational skill and resilience to overcome the inevitable dramas large and small.
Cowan was raised in Duns where he established a close friendship with Jim Clark another young local farmer.
‘We each had to have a car. We were able to drive in fields, off road, and of course through all the twisty roads around here where there was practically no traffic in those days. That definitely refined our driving skills. We had advantages that other drivers didn’t.’ said Cowan.
Both men were active in the Berwick and District Car Club during the 1950s, whilst Clark gravitated to open-wheelers Cowan ventured off-road. He soon contested 1960 RAC Rally finishing 43rd in a field of over 200 starters in a Sunbeam Rapier. His father acquired a more powerful Rapier in which he won the 1962 and 1963 Scottish Rallies. As a consequence the Rootes Group invited him to become their ‘works’ driver.
Cowan had much success with both Rootes and subsequently Mitsubishi. He also won the 1977 London-Sydney Marathon in a Mercedes 280E with Colin Malkin again one of the co-drivers. I can still remember the thrill of seeing him and the rest of the field charging through the still, frigid winter air of the sub-alpine control Victorian Alfa Club Members manned north of Mansfield in September 1977.
Cowan was a popular and much respected figure in Australia, he won five consecutive Southern Cross Rallies in Mitsubishi’s (1972–76), the 1977 Rallye Bandama Cote d’Ivoire, the 1976 Scottish Rally Championship and the world’s longest rally, the 20,000-mile South American Marathon in 1978. In the Safari Rally he finished in the top 4 four times in five years. In the Paris-Dakar, his best result was second in 1985. He retired as a driver in 1990.
In 1977, he was awarded the British Guild of Motoring Writers’ Driver of the Year Award, the Jim Clark Memorial Trophy for ‘outstanding achievement by a Scottish driver’ and the BRDC’s John Cobb Trophy for a British driver of outstanding success.
After Cowan’s retirement as a driver he established a European base for Mitsubishi. ‘Andrew Cowan Motorsports’ was based in Rugby, Warwickshire and morphed into Mitsubishi Ralliart taking Tommi Makinen to four consecutive World Rally Championship titles (1996-9) and a manufacturers title for Mitsubishi in 1998. He retired in 2005.
Credits…
Rolls Press/Popperfoto, Bruce Thomas, Wikipedia, bobwatsonrally.com.au, southerncrossrallyblogspot.com, ewrc-results.com
Tailpiece: Cowan’s Hillman Hunter, known colloquially as ‘grunters’ in Oz, in 2nd place during the Numeralla to Hindmarsh Station stage, typical Australian sub-alpine terrain and vegetatation…
Finito…