Rally Australia was held on September 11-14 in the Coffs Harbour region of NSW. Clerk of Course was Adrian Stafford.

World Rally Championship Round 10

Australian Rally Championship Round 5

There were 27 entries in the WRC event with four works teams. Volkswagen brough Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen, Citroën Meeke and Østberg, Ford Hirvonen and Evans, and Hyundai their regular Neuville, plus part-timer Paddon in the second car, plus a guest drive for local Chris Atkinson. A solid list of WRC2 cars were also present including the relatively unknown Estonian, Ott Tänak in an R5 Fiesta. The various ARC categories added a further 36 cars and 6 buggies. Only 11 cars were entered in the ARC (2WD) category, headed by Scott Pedder in the Renault Clio R3.

Volkswagen came to Australia in a dominant position having won every round except the previous round in Germany where Thierry Neuville brought some joy for Hyundai. Ogier had won five rounds to his team-mate Latvala’s three and carried a clear 44 points lead. Ford and Citroën had struggled, as had Hyundai.

With Ogier hampered by road position, Meeke took an early lead from Mikkelsen, Hirvonen and Latvala. Ogier recovered on the second run of the three stages and by day end was in the lead, but only 8 seconds separated the top five. Neuville had a slight off and broke something in the suspension and finished the day in tenth. Both Paddon and Atkinson struggled for pace and finished sixth and eleventh respectively. They would be hampered by road position on Day Two.

Latavala took over the lead on the morning of Day Two, but Ogier again recovered in the afternoon to finish the day 12 seconds ahead of his leam-mate. Mikkelsen had worked his way into third. Neuville worked his way back to eighth behind Paddon, while Atkinson was still in eleventh. Tänak had a big accident on the second last stage while Østberg picked up damage on the same stage and lost a fair bit of time. Other’s held position but Ogier easily won the Power Stage.

In the ARC it was fill points for Pedder and Moscatt, taking each day’s win and the overall. Their closest rivals were Mick Patton and Bernie Web in the VW Polo. Richie Dalton and John Allen won the 4WD round in a Lancer Evo9, also winning each day. The Classics category was again dominated by Neal Bates and Coral Taylor in the Celica RA40. Cody Crocker and Greg Foletta won all three days of the SidexSide category.