The Playstation Rally was the final “Round Australia” rally to be held. It ran clockwise around the continent, starting and finishing in Adelaide over 22 days from September 6 to 27, 1998.
The Playstation Rally was directed by Bob Carpenter and organised by Advantage International. The event was in principle similar to the Mobil 1 Trial three years earlier in that it was a special stage event with often long transport stages completing the significant distance around Australia. But unlike the 1995 Mobil 1 Trial, the Playstation only ran special stages in daylight and stopped every night. On the other hand, while the two events were of similar overall distance, the Playstation had 50 percent more competitive distance, a total of about 3,900 km of special stages (but 6 stages were cancelled reducing the total to about 3,650 km). The other major difference was advent of 4WD cars, with 4WD SUV vehicles filling seven of the top ten places.
As in the 1979 Repco Reliability Trial and the 1995 Mobil 1 Trial, it was Holden who won the day, this time with their two team Holden Jackeroos, led by Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki, with Peter Brock and Wayne Webster second in the more “standard” model. Both had a number of incidents with Brock having a significant “off” on the penultimate day. But it was a massive win for the team with the third placed Datsun 180B SSS of David Lowe and Robert Gambino 2½ hours behind.
Various challengers fell by the wayside during the event. Michael Guest in a rally spec Subaru Impreza WRX set an early pace but retired on Day 3 after hitting a rock and breaking the suspension. Ross Nicastri in a Jackeroo was quick and held second for several days before succumbing to engine problems at Carnarvon on Day 6. Graeme Wise in a Commodore V8 Ute were often quick and held onto third place for much of the event but hit a rock south of Townsville on Day 16 and fell from contention. Reg Owen in a Nissan Patrol ran as high as third but rolled on Day 20, dropping to fifth. Peter Lockhart in a Jackeroo was consistent and was lying fourth when they rolled in Stanley on the penultimate day. Ron Peddar had a variety of early problems in their Commodore Ute, but eventually fought back to finish sixth.
The full story is available on Tom Snook’s History website.
