Impressive entry

Such was the success of the Castrol 77 the entry on the '78' was equally impressive. Pentti was back to defend his title, Ari Vatanen, Bjorn Waldegard, Russell Brookes, Malcolm Wilson were in Escorts, Dawson a Datsun, McRae a Chevette and Culcheth a Kadett. Two Toyotas were in the mix with Therier and Asterhag, Kaby brought along a Group 1 Dolomite and Elsmore had a prize drive in a Chevette. There were seven stages again with a slightly longer mileage than the previous year. The Dunlop drivers were again juggling M&S and A2 patterns to reduce their number of punctures. It was the Goodyear runners, however, who ended up having the best record in that department.

A titanic struggle

Service was confined to one location all day, was this an early example of "centralised servicing"? The problem was the location, it was the rain lashed mining spoil heaps of Dylife. This was not a popular choice with the service crews. The rally was a titanic struggle between Ari and Pentti with the Chevette driver winning by 12 seconds.