1996 Rally Australia

Table of Contents

Results and entry list
Route
Other event documents

Rally Australia was held on September 13-16, based in Perth.

World Rally Championship Round 6

Asia Pacific Rally Championship Round 5

Australian Rally Championship Round 12 (coeff 15)

Rally Australia 1996 will forever be remembered for the wet, and in particular, the treacherous water splash in Bunnings that stopped many of the leading cars, eventually resulting in the stage being cancelled.

This was the year that Toyota were largely banned from the WRC as a result of a turbo infringement the previous year. So only Subaru, Ford and Mitsubishi teams came to Australia. There were nevertheless over 100 entries, headed by Subarus lead driver, Colin McRae. He was supported by the previous year’s winner, Kennath Eriksson, and Italian Piero Liatti, plus local Possum Bourne, intent on confirming his first Australian title. Ford brought two cars for Mäkinen and Burns, with local Ed Ordynski in a Group N Lancer. while Sainz was now in a Ford Escort, supported by Bruno Thiry. The Toyota flag was flown by local Neal Bates and Japanese driver, Yoshio Fujimoto.

Reigning champion, Colin McRae had a difficult event and was never quite on the pace. By the end of the first day, Mäkinen was 37 seconds ahead of Sainz, then Eriksson and McRae. Day 2 was the Bunnings disaster with two stages cancelled, but by day end Mäkinen had xtended his lead, Eriksson had overtaken Sainz. and McRae had drifted further back. And that’s pretty much how they finished. The win gave Mäkinen the 1996 World Rally Championship, his first of four successive title.

Possum Bourne all but confirmed his national title with a convincing win after Bates went off in the Celica at the start of the final day. Bourne finished eighth outright, well ahead of rival Ed Ordynski who finished thirteenth.

Results and entry list

Entry list

Place	Driver	Ctry/St	Co-driver	Ctry/St	Car	Time	ARC
1	Tommi Mäkinen	Fin	Seppo Harjanne	Fin	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	4:08:50
2	Kenneth Eriksson	Swe	Staffan Parmander	Swe	Subaru Impreza 555	4:10:07
3	Carlos Sainz	Esp	Luis Moya	Esp	Ford Escort RS Cosworth	4:10:11
4	Colin McRae	UK	Derek Ringer	UK	Subaru Impreza 555	4:12:01
5	Richard Burns	UK	Robert Reid	UK	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	4:12:15
6	Bruno Thiry	Belg	Stéphane Prévot	Belg	Ford Escort RS Cosworth	4:17:38
7	Piero Liatti	Ita	Fabrizia Pons	Ita	Subaru Impreza 555	4:20:21
8	Peter ‘Possum’ Bourne	NZ	Craig Vincent	NZ	Subaru Impreza 555	4:20:57	1
9	Yoshio Fujimoto	Jap	Arne Hertz	Swe	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD (ST185)	4:36:42
10	Ed Ordynski	SA	Mark Stacey	SA	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	4:37:37	2
11	Yoshihiro Kataoka	Jap	Satoshi Hayashi	Jap	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	4:37:55
12	Karamjit Singh	Mal	Allen Oh	Mal	Proton Wira 4WD	4:40:13
13	Katsuhiko Taguchi	Jap/NSW	Fred Gocentas	ACT	Proton Wira 4WD	4:46:08	3
14	Pavel Sibera	Cze	Petr Gross	Cze	Škoda Felicia Kit Car	4:52:18
15	Jan Habig	RSA	Douglas Judd	RSA	Ford Escort RS Cosworth	4:52:57
16	Erwin Weber	Ger	Manfred Hiemer	Ger	Seat Ibiza Kit Car	4:53:38
17	Gustavo Trelles	Ura	Buono Jorge Del	Arg	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	4:53:48
18	Emil Triner	Cze	Pavel Štanc	Cze	Škoda Felicia Kit Car	4:54:32
19	Michael Guest	NSW	Steve O’Brien-Pounde	NSW	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	4:56:33	4
20	Dennis Dunlop	WA	Jacquie Dunlop	Wa	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo	5:00:50	5
21	Masayuki Akaba	Jap	Takako Akaba	Jap	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	5:01:41
22	Antonello Fidanza	Ita	Raffaele Farina	Ita	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	5:03:26
23	Stewart Reid	Qld	Andrew Bennett	NSW	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	5:04:07	6
24	Ron Cremen	NSW	Lyndall Drake	ACT	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	5:06:15	7
25	Shigeyuki Konishi	Jap	Yoshimasa Nakahara	Jap	Subaru Impreza WRX	5:07:41
26	Jacquiline Dines	WA	Paul Helm	WA	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III	5:08:00	8
27	Ross Mackenzie	WA	Tony Brandon	NSW	Daihatsu Charade GTi	5:12:08	9
28	Michael Thompson	ACT	Gordon Klebba	ACT	Subaru Impreza WRX	5:16:52	10
29	Hideaki Miyoshi	Jap	Colin Smith		Subaru Impreza WRX	5:17:04
30	Wayne Bell	NSW	Iain Stewart	Qld	Hyundai Lantra	5:17:40
31	Rob Herridge	WA	Chris Randell	Vic	Kia Sephia	5:19:52
32	Tony Flood	WA	Robert Webber	WA	Toyota Celica GT-4	5:20:21
33	Simon Lingford		Grant Wilkins		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo	5:21:55
34	Toshimitsu Kuraoka	Jap	Noriko Yamaguchi	Jap	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo	5:33:17
35	Andrew Pinker	WA	Duncan Jordan	WA	Seat Ibiza GTi 16V	5:33:43
36	Dean Herridge	WA	Rod van der Straaten	WA	Kia Sephia	5:36:43
37	Justin Middleton	WA	Paul van der Mey	WA	Mazda Familia 4WD	5:41:34
38	Han-bong Kim	Kor	Andrew Graham Walker	UK	Hyundai Accent	5:43:01
39	Keith Hedgeland	WA	Stephen Handbury	Vic	Mazda Familia 4WD	5:43:23
40	Walther Nahr	Swiss	Frederick Conner	UK	Mitsubishi Galant VR-4	5:43:33
41	Toshikatsu Iwashita	Jap	Tatsuya Sugimoto	Jap	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo	5:45:01
42	Mike Morris	NSW	Nick Vardos	NSW	Toyota Corolla Seca RV	5:46:20
43	Haruo Takakuwa	Jap	Kazuo Yokomatsu	Jap	Subaru Impreza WRX	5:51:03
44	Mark Furphy		Corina Dorlandt		Daihatsu Charade 1.3i	6:03:19
45	Mark Pope		Stephen Syson		Hyundai Lantra	6:09:52
46	Brian Hilton	NSW	Wayne Parker	NZ	Toyota Corolla Seca RV	6:17:03
47	Ross Lockhart		Sharon Beecraft		Nissan Pulsar GTi-R	6:22:54
48	Takuro Yoshioka	Jap	Hajime Sakaki	Jap	Toyota Corolla Levin	6:24:08
49	Manuel Sin	Port	Vincent Mak		Mitsubishi Galant VR-4	6:37:54
50	Kirk Marks	Vic	Peter Mahony	Cic	Toyota Corolla Seca RV	6:38:35
51	Martin Dalgliesh	WA	Toni Feaver	WA	Mazda Familia 4WD	7:02:09

Stage results

Route

This year’s event was almost identical to the previous year with a Friday night start with the Langley Park super special, stages to the south on Saturday, south-east on Sunday and east on Monday, for a slightly shorter total of 484 competitive kilometres.

Itinerary and stage plots