Australia 1986

In contrast to the nightmarish conditions of deepest Borneo, Camel Trophy Australia 1986 covered the greatest distance in the shortest time in the event's history. The route from the historic settlement of Cooktown, over looking the Great Barrier Reef, took the fourteen national teams across 3,218 km of the deserted northern outback before reaching their destination at Darwin, thirteen days later.

For the first time, teams from United Kingdom, Malaysia, France and Australia participated, again driving the Land Rover Ninety. Although only fourteen teams took part it was the largest international gathering of participants in the event's history,

The convoy's progress across the dry and dusty outback averaged approximately 250 km a day during the two week expedition. Progress was  at times still halted, indeed twenty four hours were spent by teams at one particular river.  The only way to ferry the convoy across the swollen river was in true Camel Trophy fashion - by constructing rafts...

The French team, Jacques Mambre and Michel Courvallet, were declared winners at the Darwin finish.  The "Team Spirit Award" went deservedly to the Australian team of Glenn Jones and Ron Begg.

Statistics

• Team Vehicles: Land Rover Ninety

• Support Vehicles: Land Rover One Ten

• Distance: 3,200 km 

• Number of Teams: 14

Participating Countries

• Australia - Glenn Jones & Ron Begg (Team Spirit Award)

• Belgium - Geoffroy de Liedekarke & Chris Michel

• Brazil - Leonardo Blume & Rodolfo Ramina

• Canary Islands - Jose Robayna & Javier Mena

• France - Jaques Mambre & Michel Courvallet (Camel Trophy)

• Germany - Wolfgang Marx & Peter Brussing

• Holland - Rob van Leeuwen & Jan Bos

• Italy - Daniele Terzi & Giorgio Albiero

• Japan - Hidenobu Takeuchi & Yoshinori Kitamura

• Malaysia - Zaini Shaarani & Tang Fook Leong

• Spain - Sergio Klein & Ignacio Aguirre

• Switzerland - Willi Forster & Sepp Ulrich

• United Kingdom - Jerry Gatley & David Scott

• United States - Frank Smith & Carl Guffey