Rally Australia was held on  November 9-12, based in Perth.

World Rally Championship Round 13

The WRC was again closely fought with Rally Australia the second last round. Marcus Grönholm in the Peugeot 206 came to Australia with a slender 4 point lead over Subaru’s Richard Burns, both with four wins apiece on the previous 12 rounds.

Despite only being a WRC round, Rally Australia attracted a bumper entry of 83 cars, including six international works teams. Peugeot brought Delecour and Panizzi in support of Grönholm, while Subaru had four time Rally Australia winner Juha Kankkunen in support of Burns, plus two newcomers, Petter Solberg and Marko Märtin. Ford had McRae, Sainz and Laukkanen in Focuses, Mitsubishi with Evo 6s for Mäkinen and Loix, SEAT brough Auriol and Gardemeister, and Hyundai had Eriksson and the younger McRae. It was an impressive line-up of international stars, plus the keen locals, Possum Bourne and Cody Crocker in Subarus, Neal Bates in the Corolla, Michael Guest in a Hyundai WRC, and Ed Ordynski ina  Group N Lancer,

Road position played a key role in the event with early runners slowed by the ball bearing gravel. It also lead to attempts to manipulate the Day two road position by dropping a place, but Sainz was excluded for stopping between the warning marker and the flying finish of the final stage of Day One.

At the end of the first full day, Kankkunen lead from Delecour and Mäkinen, then Burns and Grönholm just 2 seconds apart. Only a minute covered the top eight with Possum Bourne in an impressive ninth. Subaru had lost Solberg with a crash and Märtin with transmission failure. Loix also had gearbox failure in the Lancer, while McRae had engine problems in his Focus.

With road position more favourable to Grönholm and Burns, they worked their way into the top two spots by the end of Day Two, with Mäkinen close behind. Kankkunen crashed out towards the end of the day after dropping to fourth. Mäkinen surged into the lead on the final day, looking good to take his third Rally Australia victory, but a turbo irregularity saw him excluded. That left Grönholm the winner, a mere 2.7 seconds ahead of Burns. Grönholm would place second to Burns on the final WRC round in Wales, but would win the championship by 4 points.

Among the locals, Possum Bourne was again the best, placing seventh with Neal Bates ninth.