Rally Australia was held on September 3-6 in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Clerk of Course was Michelle Gatton. assisted by Peter Macneall and Errol Bailey.
World Rally Championship Round 10
It was a welcome return for Rally Australia, with a new sponsor, Repoc, and relocated to the east coast under a deal done by Garry Connelly with the NSW Government. Locating the event in the Northern Rivers region with a base at the tourist resort of Kingscliff was arguable based on the need to be close to major population centres, namely Brisbane and the Gold Coast. But the local councils were not so enthusiastic and community opposition was quite strong. Special State legislation was passed to fast-track approvals and to all intents and purposes, to override local opposition. The event was a success but was attended by large numbers of police aimed at keeping any local opposition at bay. Ultimately a stage to be run twice was cancelled when locals attempted to block the route. The region had other challenges with a limited selection of roads and a necessity to use a lot of quite short stages. The longer stages required lengthy liaisons over the slow and twisty road to Kyogle. It was perhaps no surprise that the event subsequently moved to Coffs Harbour.
The WRC was finely balanced as teams came to the Australia in September 2009 for Round 10. Sébastien Loeb had taken five straight wins at the start of the season but Mikko Hirvonen had picked up four podiums, but also a crucial DNF in Argentina. Greece was Loeb’s turn for a DNF was an accident, while Hirvonen took the win, followed by two more wins in Poland and Finland. Hirvonen brought a slender 3 point advantage to Australia. Loeb’s team-mate was also in the game, with a strong of good results and was still mathematically able to take the title.
Only two works teams came to Australia. The BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team came with Hirvonen, Latvala, Matthew Wilson and Al-Qassimi, with further support through private teams with Henning Solberg and Frederico Villagra. Citroën brought Loeb, Sordo and Ogier. There were only 27 entries, with a strong Group N competition headed by New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon, Australian Cody Crocker and Czeck Martin Prokop.
The event got underway on the Thursday night with two runs on the “Speed on Tweed” course around the streets of Murwillumbah, repeated at the end of both Friday and Saturday. On Friday’s numerous short stages, honours were shared among Hirvonen, Loeb, Ogier, Sordo and Latvala, with some disadvantage to the early runners due to road clearing. By day end Latvala and Ogier were only 2 seconds apart but 20 seconds ahead of Loeb, Sordo and Hirvonen, all within one second!
The Saturday saw some longer stages and road position having less impact. Loeb worked his way back into the lead and late in the day Latvala picked up a puncture and Ogier had a big spin. By the end of the end of the day Sordo, Loeb and Hirvonen were just one tenth of a second apart. It couldn’t be any closer!
With the championship at stake, it was not surprising that Loeb and Hirvonen went for broke on the final day, but there and within a few stages, Lob had opened a small lead over Hirvonen with Sordo dropping t third, but only a few seconds back. And so they finished that way, Loeb just 12.5 seconds ahead of Hirvonen with Sordo 4.6 seconds further back in third. Ogier was up to fourth more than a minute adrift and 30 seconds ahead of Latvala.
But post event scrutiny found an issue with the Citroëns and all three were given 1 minute penalties for irregularities with their anti-rollbars. So the results were scrambled, Hirvonen the winner, and Latvala up to fourth. There were major implications for the championship with just two more rounds in Spain and Wales. but Loeb won them both to take the title from Hirvonen by a single point.
