The 1983 Australian Rally Championship was a series of four rallying events held across Australia. It was the 16th season in the history of the competition.
Ross Dunkerton won the 1983 Drivers Championship and Geoff Jones took out the navigators honours for the year.
The 16th Australian Rally Championship was held over four events across Australia, the season consisting of one event each for Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. With the series being reduced to four events for the year, the field split between two categories with the introduction of Group A cars and the lack of any factory backed teams, things did not look promising. This was compounded when the second round in Queensland was postponed twice due to inclement weather. However it was an interesting and hard fought season with Dunkerton taking out his fifth title and using three different cars and two navigators to do so. The navigator's title went to Geoff Jones who was with runner up to the driver's title Peter Johnson for all four events.
The five events of the 1983 season were as follows.[1] [2]
| Round | Rally | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Sunday Times Safari (WA) | 4–5 June 1983 |
| 2 | The James Hardie National Rally (QLD) | 16–17 July 1983 |
| 3 | Dunlop 2GO Rally (NSW) | 13–14 August 1983 |
| 4 | The Enka-Fill Alpine Rally (VIC) | 19–20 November 1983 |
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greg Carr | Fred Gocentas | 219.37 | |
| 2 | John Macara | David Hatley | Datsun 1600 | 228.31 |
| =3 | Ross Dunkerton | Steve McKimmie | Datsun 1600 | 229.05 |
| =3 | David Officer | Kate Hobson | 229.05 | |
| 5 | Ken Joss | Leo Iriks | Datsun 1600 | 234.08 |
| 6 | Peter Thompson | Simon Scott | Datsun Stanza | 243.33 |
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Brown | Noel Richards | 251.48 | |
| 2 | Caroline O’Shannesy | Jill Davies | Fiat 131 Superbrava | 322.05 |
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ross Dunkerton | David Kortlang | 206.38 | |
| 2 | Peter Glennie | Brian Smith | 209.24 | |
| 3 | David Officer | Kate Hobson | 211.22 | |
| 4 | Peter Thompson | Simon Scott | Datsun Stanza | 216.53 |
| 5 | Murray Coote | Brian Marsden | Datsun 1200 | 218.03 |
| 6 | Wayne Bell | Dave Boddy | Toyota T18 | 221.02 |
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Johnson | Geoff Jones | ||
| 2 | Peter Lockhart | John Hall | Isuzu Gemini PF50 | |
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ian Hill | Phil Bonser | 181.18 | |
| 2 | Murray Coote | Brian Marsden | Datsun 1200 | 181.40 |
| 3 | David Officer | Kate Hobson | 182.18 | |
| 4 | Graham Wise | John Williams | Datsun 1600 | 184.18 |
| 5 | Clive Slater | Alan Stafford | Toyota Celica | 184.23 |
| 6 | Ron Cremmen | M Verrall | Datsun Stanza | 184.45 |
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Johnson | Geoff Jones | 198.36 | |
| 2 | Russell Worthington | Simon Kabel | Mazda 626 | 199.30 |
| Position | Driver | Navigator | Car | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ian Hill | Phil Bonser | 4:04.57 | |
| 2 | Hugh Bell | Paul Paterson | Datsun 1600 "Dazda" | 4:05.06 |
| 3 | David Officer | Kate Hobson | 4:06.46 | |
| 4 | Clive Slater | Steve Owers | Toyota Celica | 4:12.42 |
| 5 | John Berne | Bruce Fullerton | Ford Escort RS | 4:14.39 |
| 6 | Chris Wall | Jim Maude | Datsun 1600 | 4:14.46 |
| 7 | Rod Jones | Mark Blume | Datsun 1600 | 4:15.39 |
| 8 | Peter Glover | David Burns | Ford Escort | 4:16.13 |
| 9 | Steve Ashton | Bernard Peasley | Datsun 1600 | 4:16.28 |
| 10 | Barry Lowe | Ted Dobrzynski | Datsun 1600 "Dazda" | 4:18.09 |
Final pointscore for 1983 is as follows.[3]
| Position | Driver | Car | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Datsun 1600 Datsun Stanza Holden Commodore | 56.5 | |
| 2 | Peter Johnson | Mazda RX-7 | 55 |
| 3 | David Officer | Mitsubishi Galant | 54.5 |
| 4 | Ian Hill | Ford Escort | 48 |
| 5 | Russell Worthington | Mazda 626 | 39 |
| 6 | Caroline O'Shannesy | Fiat 131 Superbrava | 35 |
| 7 | Murray Coote | Datsun 1200 | 26 |
| 8 | Greg Carr | Fiat 131 Abarth | 24 |
| 9 | Peter Lockhart | Isuzu Gemini | 23 |
| 10 | Chris Browne | Holden Commodore | 20 |
| Position | Navigator | Car | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geoff Jones | (with Johnson) | 55 |
| 2 | Kate Hobson | (with Officer) | 54 1/2 |
| 3 | Phil Bonser | (with Hill) | 48 |
| 4 | David Kortlang | (with Dunkerton) | 44 |
| 5 | Gary Kabel | (with Worthington) | 39 |
| 6 | Meg Davis | (with O'Shannesy) | 35 |
| 7 | Brian Marsden | (with Coote) | 26 |
| 8 | Fred Gocentas | (with Carr) | 24 |
| 9 | Stephen Treadwell | (with Lockhart) | 23 |
| 10 | Noel Richards | (with Brown) | 20 |