In 2021 RACV will celebrate the centenary of the RACV Alpine Trials, events that were significant milestones in Australian automotive history.
To commemorate those milestones RACV, along with the Vintage Drivers Club, will be organising an event recreating the original 1921 Alpine Trial.
The RACV Alpine Trial Centenary will be held from Saturday 20 November to Saturday 27 November 2021.
History
RACV held a series of reliability trials between 1921-1926. The route of the inaugural 1921 trial ran from Melbourne to Lakes Entrance, Tallangatta, Mount Buffalo, Wangaratta and Healesville before returning to Melbourne via a final loop through Ballarat and Geelong.
The trial focussed on Victoria’s Alpine region, advocating for both tourism and the construction of better roads and services to expand the touring potential of north-east Victoria. George Broadbent, RACV Touring Department Manager, wrote of the scenic beauty of the region, further encouraging members to explore the Alpine landscapes. The RACV Journal of 15 April 1926 testified to the success of this aim stating that new tourist resorts in the Alpine area had opened following the trials and a stimulus given to the movement for better roads.
The trials were both reliability and efficiency contests. Hill climbing contests and fuel consumption tests were also included with automobile companies using the associated publicity to promote their vehicles. The trials were popular with both private individuals and motoring companies and attracting up to 60 entrants to each event. Each vehicle carried at least two people, including the driver, an observer and sometimes an administrator. Harry James, one of the three founders of RACV, Dunlop’s advertising manager and a keen motor sportsman, planned the reliability trials and organised widescale publicity ensuring each day’s events were keenly followed nationwide.
The trials’ routes were onerous. The Australian Motorist, on 1 December 1921, reported that the RACV Sports Committee deliberately designed the trial to be “one of great severity” so manufacturers’ claims about their vehicles could be put to the test “for the benefit of prospective purchasers.” RACV testified to this aim in its annual report of 1922 stating, “the principal object of this annual contest is to set an arena in which current models of cars can be publicly tested for the benefit of the ultimate purchaser.” After only two years, the Club proclaimed the annual Alpine Trial had become the largest event of its kind in the world.”
The continuation of the Alpine Trials by the Victorian Light Car Club, then by the Historic Rally Association, means that the Alpine Rally is one of the world’s oldest surviving motor sport events.
The Centenary Event
The event will follow, as close as practicable, the route of the 1921 RACV 1000 Mile Reliability Trial
A maximum of 100 vehicles will be permitted to enter, with preference given to vehicles that competed in the original events and to other vehicles manufactured during the period of the trials: 1921-1926.
Entries will be accepted in 3 Tiers. Preference for acceptance will be in the order of these tiers.
Tier 1: Vehicles that actually contested any of the four RACV events between 1921-1926.
Tier 2: Vehicles of the same make and model as the original contestants of the 1921-1926 trials.
Tier 3a: Other vehicles manufactured between 1921-1926.
Tier 3b: Vintage vehicles up to 1930.
The event provides significant investment in regional Victoria particularly those hard hit by bushfires and then COVID.
Event program
Day 1 - Saturday 20 November 2021 - RACV Noble Park to Traralgon
Day 2 - Sunday 21 November 2021 - Traralgon to Lakes Entrance
Day 3 - Monday 22 November 2021 - Lakes Entrance to Wodonga
Day 4 - Tuesday 23 November 2021 - Wodonga to Bright
Day 5 - Wednesday 24 November 2021 - Bright to Mt Buffalo, Harrietville & return to Bright
Day 6 - Thursday 25 November 2021 - Bright to Mansfield
Day 7 - Friday 26 November 2021 - Mansfield to Healesville
Day 8 - Saturday 27 November 2021 - Healesville to Ballarat finishing at Creswick.
Event Committee
An event committee has been established with representatives from RACV and the Vintage Drivers Club, meeting monthly at the Vintage Drivers Club rooms in Nunawading.
Committee members are:
Megan Ballantyne - Chair, Head of Partnerships & Events RACV
John Johnston - President, Vintage Drivers Club
Glenda Chivers - Event Secretary, Vintage Drivers Club
Arnold Chivers - Vintage Drivers Club
Stuart McCorkelle - Vintage Drivers Club
Doug Stevenson - Vintage Drivers Club
Daryl Meek - Vintage Drivers Club
Nicole Ballina - RACV
Belinda Mackay - RACV
CONTACT
Glenda Chivers | Secretary RACV Alpine Trial Centenary | racvalpinetrialcentenary@vdc.org.au |0431 709 248
