Rally Australia was held on September 16-19, based in Perth.
Asia Pacific Rally Championship Round 4
Australian Rally Championship Round 14 (coeff 20)
This was the seventh Rally Australia, but this year it was not a round of the WRC. nevertheless attracting 4 top internationals – McRae, Kankkunen, Eriksson and Burns, principally so they could gain more experience with the stages when the event returned to the WRC the following year. As a round of the APRC, the event attracted New Zealand star Possum Bourne, and quite a few entries from Asia. And as a coefficient 20 round of the ARC, it attracted the main contenders – Bates, Dunkerton, Ordynski and Guest.
The event saw a close tussle between Kankkunen and McRae, with the Scot eventually taking the win by a mere 9 second after 539 km of special stages. Possum Bourne bounced back from the tragedy of the previous year to finish fourth, while Ross Dunkerton was sixth outright and first in the ARC category to bolster his chances of a sixth national title.