1963 Akademos Re-run
Saturday 2nd to Sunday 3rd September, 2023
The Akademos ’63 “Hell Trial” Tour is a two-day non-speed, non-timed Navigational Assembly on open public roads between Melbourne and Traralgon.
The route closely replicates the route of the famous 1963 Akademos, nicknamed the “Hell Trial” because of terrible weather and difficult navigation. The route will cover approximately 190 miles on the Saturday and 175 miles on the Sunday.
Keeping with the 1963 theme of the event, all distances in the instructions will be in miles and the maps, to be provided by the organisers, will be those used in 1963. Participants will have the option to treat the event as a serious navigational challenge (still much as was the case in 1963) or to open the “Cruising Instructions” envelope for each Section and follow simple instructions, with appropriate scoring penalties.
The route has been selected to suit normal road registered cars provided they have tyres suitable for good gravel roads with some potholes and reasonable ground clearance – think 1963 Fords! Almost all minor tracks have been bypassed although those taking on the navigational challenges will still need to find where they are/were.
The event will be a round of the HRA Standard Car Class (SCC) and the HRA Touring Championships. In some cases, the SCC cars will use short sections of minor tracks that were part of the original route while non-SCC cars bypass them.
The event will start and finish in Lilydale and have an overnight stop at the Century Inn Hotel near Traralgon. Saturday night dinner for 2 crew members is included in the entry fee. It is intended that all touring will be in daylight but the later crews may finish after sunset on the Saturday.
Fords filled the first four places in 1963 and there will be special awards for any Fords and other pre 1/7/63 vehicles that compete. We aren’t aware of any competitors from 1963 who can join the event but encourage family members of original crews to come along and see what their forebears did in their rallying days.
We hope you will join us.