The 1973 Press-on-Regardless Rally (formally the 25th Press-on-Regardless Rally) was the eleventh round of the inaugural

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

season. Run at the outset of November in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the rally was run entirely on gravel.

Report

Due to a combination of scheduling and location, the event was not attended by most European competitors. Giving teams only two weeks following the preceding Sanremo Rally to travel across the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, and then giving even less time for a return to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

for the following

RAC Rally Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) cal ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, proved unrealistic for most teams, and in the event, only a few teams from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

made the trip with their domestic Polski Fiat 125p vehicles. As it turned out, the event was primarily a local affair, with a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

, Walter Boyce, taking the win ahead of a field of American drivers. In 1973, and for several years afterward, only manufacturers were given points for finishes in WRC events. With the teams focused on the prestigious RAC Rally upcoming, and with the year's championship already sewn up by

Alpine Renault Société des Automobiles Alpine SAS, commonly known as Alpine (, ), is a French manufacturer of sports cars and racing cars established in 1955. The Alpine car marque was created in 1954. Jean Rédélé, the founder of Alpine, was originall ...

, the works teams did not make an effort to compete in the American leg of the championship.

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

became the beneficiary as it was a Corolla that carried Boyce to victory, while other makes popular on the North American market filled out the ranks.

Datsun Datsun (, ) was a Japanese automobile manufacturer brand owned by Nissan. Datsun's original production run began in 1931. From 1958 to 1986, only vehicles exported by Nissan were identified as Datsun. Nissan phased out the Datsun brand in Marc ...

s were particularly prevalent—especially the locally popular

Datsun 510 The Datsun 510 was a series of the Datsun Bluebird sold from 1968 to 1973. Outside the US it was sold as either the Datsun Bluebird or as the Datsun 1300/1400/1500/1600/1800 (depending on engine variant). The rear-wheel drive 510's engineering ...

—and

Polski Fiat Polski Fiat (literally in English: ''Polish Fiat'') was a Polish car brand. Under this brand, cars under licence of the Italian manufacturer FIAT were manufactured or assembled in Poland. Before World War II The brand was created in 1932, wh ...

was rewarded for their effort in making the trip by a finish in the points, but overall, the results factored little into the factory efforts for the championship.

Results

Source: Independent WRC archive

Championship standings after the event

References

External links

Official website of the World Rally Championship

1973 Press-on-Regardless Rally
a
Rallye-info
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627135750/http://www.rallye-info.com/ , date=June 27, 2020 Press-on-Regardless Motorsport in Michigan 1973 in American motorsport