World Rally Championship Round 10
Asia Pacific Rally Championship Round 3
It was history in the making as Australia staged its first ever round of the WRC. With Miki Biasion all but having clinched the title for 1989, Lancia brought Markku Alén and Alessandro Fiorio in Delta Integrales. The previous year’s winner, Ingvar Carlsson, was there in a Mazda 323. Toyota Team Europe, yet to have a win in their new Celica, brought Juha Kankkunen and Kenneth Eriksson. Malcolm Wilson represented General Motors in an Astra. As a round of the APRC, there were entries from New Zealand – Rod Millen, Possum Bourne and Ray Wilson, several from Japan including reigning champion Kenjiro Shinosuka, and several from Indonesia, including Tommy Suharto. Australia was of course well represented, including Carr in a Lancia, Dunkerton and Ordynski in Galants, Wayne Bell in a Mazda and Rob Herridge in a Subaru.
Rain greeted crews at the opening Thursday night super special stage at the now defunct Richmond Raceway in Fremantle. Some internationals were complaining of being on the wrong tyres, but it made little different with Kankkunen fastest, 1 second ahead of Eriksson, 2 seconds back to Alén, then Carlsson and Fiorio matched by local hero Dunkerton, this year in a 4WD car.
The rain had cleared by Friday but the roads were damp and treacherous from the overnight rain. Calsson’s Mazda was overheating and would eventually retire with a blown head gasket. Dunkerton retired after SS5 with mechanical issues. Two stages were run at night on the way back to Perth. Kankkunen pulled out a handy lead of 1m43s over team-mate Eriksson, with the Lancia’s of Alén and Fiorio in third and fourth a bit over a minute further back. Then there was a huge gap to the rest. But at the service back in Perth, Eriksson’s Celica would not start and had to be pushed into parc fermé, after which the stewards applied a 90 second penalty, dropping them to fourth. Apparently a fuel pipe was inadvertently blocked during service and was rectified next morning.
Day 3 dawned fine and even a bit dusty. The first stage of the morning, “Pipeline”, claimed some victims with its fast jumps and dips. Alén damaged the suspension and was slowed on subsequent stages. Carr broke a diff and retired. Spectators were given great entertainment at the Muresk agricultural college with its fast jumps over grids. The last short stage was run in darkness, but back in Perth, Kankkunen was still in the lead but Eriksson had climbed back to second ahead of Alén and Fiorio. The four internationals had a 14 minute gap to “the rest”, with Rod Millen and Malcolm Wilson vying for fifth place.
The final day was largely without incident with four stages in the Bunnings pine plantation area and a final spectator stage at Whiteman Park in Perth’s northern suburbs. The positions did not change, with Toyota taking a one-two, its first WRC win in the new Celica. Rod Millen came in fifth and would go on to win the Asia Pacific Championship. Top Australian was Wayne Bell in a Mazda 323, eight and just 41 seconds ahead of Ed Ordynski in a Galant VR4. Possum Bourne was tenth after a 9 minute penalty, presumably for lateness after needing extra service time.
