This year saw a major change in the structure of the Australian Rally Championship with the introduction of a coefficient system for events, inspired by a similar system used in the European Rally Championship. In essence, there were more events, including state championship rounds and Rally Australia, with points weighted according to the status of the event, but crews still could only count their best six results. A fuller description of the system and the rationale for its introduction was provided by Bruce Keys (CAMS Manager – Rally) in the May 1992 Unicar Magazine. You can read it here. Interestingly, the main championship contenders did not compete in many of the coefficient 5 rounds.
After a lacklustre 1992, Neal Bates with new co-driver Coral Taylor won the 1993 championship by a comfortable margin in their Celica with wins at the coefficient 10 rounds in Victoria, WA, NSW, and Tasmania, plus third at coefficient 20 Rally Australia and second at coefficient 15 Rally of Canberra (plus a third in Queensland that would be dropped). It was the first of three national championships on the trot for the Toyota crew. Ed Ordynski returned to the championship with co-driver Mark Stacey in a Galant and secured a win at Canberra, with seconds in SA and Rally Australia to finish second in the championship. Possum Bourne and Rodger Freeth won in SA and Queensland to finish third in the points.
To see other years of the ARC, go to the series page.
