Rally Australia was held on October 31 to November 3, based in Perth.
World Rally Championship Round 13
Marcus Grönholm was dominant in this year’s WRC, and had already sealed the title by the time crews made the journey to Perth for the second last round. The runner-up position was still to play for with Solberg, Sainz, McRae Burns, Panizzi and Rovanperä all very close on points. And so six factory teams came to Australia. In Peugeots were Grönholm, Burns and Rovanperä. Subaru brough Solberg and Mäkinen, plus Arai and Bourne. Ford brough Sainz, McRae, Märtin and Duval. Mitsubishi had only Delecour and Paasonen. Hyundai now had Kankkunen, Loix and Schwarz. And the new Škoda team had Eriksson and Gardemeister. And well down the list was a little known driver, Sébastien Loeb, in a Citroën Xsara, who had sprung to prominence by winning the German round of the WRC a few months earlier.
Loix crashed out on SS6 and Delecour had a huge accident on SS7, ripping the engine from the Lancer. Burns retired with clutch failure and Schwarz with engine problems. So at the end of the first full day, Grönholm had a handy 30 second lead over Solberg, with Sainz in third, On Day Two McRae overcooked it in Muresk, nosediving the Focus and damaging the radiator. By the end of the day Grönholm had extended his lead. The final day saw Grönholm extend his lead again, Rovanperä overtake Solberg, and Mäkinen overtake Sainz. Unbelievably, Mäkinen was excluded for the second year in succession due to the car being under weight. And the little-known Loeb came home seventh.
The best place local was Ed Ordynski, eleventh in a Group N Lancer.
