A 1970 World Cup Rally Competitors Archive. There are over 250 documents and a few photographs mainly taken during preparation for the rally. The Competitor, archive compiler and main driver Peter Jopp, retired from the race in Lima, 1000 miles from the point at which the team would have been credited with finishing and 2500 miles from the final destination, Mexico City.
He was in a team of three which included William Cave and Mark Kahn, two Daily Mirror journalists, the newspaper that sponsored the team.
Included in the archive, which is all housed in Mr Jopp’s original Varig Airlines travel case are newspaper clippings collected together prior to the rally and one main Daily Mirror article telling the story of their exit from the rally.
Also included are; the car competitors pass for Peter Jopp, the passport document needed for the competition, airline ticket stubs and other airline items, right of passage documents, many letters both official and unofficial, all connected to the rally, information bulletins from the Daily Mirror, both before and during the race, rules and regulations booklet, kit and tool checklists, insurance documents, invoices from garages and equipment suppliers, paperwork relating to a claim by french customs that Mr Jopp had not paid import duty on £150.00 worth of spares, which had been in the boot of the competition car, paperwork relating to a claim for reimbursement of Mr Jopp’s return flight cost which he had missed and had to pay for himself, the competition car invoice, handwritten notes etc.
There is so much paperwork that it is difficult to do it all justice, but if you can imagine that you were preparing in a thorough fashion for this race yourself and needed to keep everything together for reference, then this is what this collection represents.
The most interesting pieces in my opinion are the official information bulletins, which provide lists of competitors and their positions at certain points during the race. The bulletins in this collection do not record the whole race as the Jopp team did not finish the race so presumably were out of the loop from their point of exit.
The description of the route is also interesting as is some of the personal correspondence.
All in all this is a unique collection of items documenting an historic sporting event which I am sure will give great pleasure to the winning bidder.