Rally Australia was held on September 10-13 in the Coffs Harbour region of NSW. Clerk of Course was Adrian Stafford.
World Rally Championship Round 10
Australian Rally Championship Round 4
Sébastien Ogier (VW Polo) again came to Australia with the WRC title almost wrapped up, having taken six wins and two seconds from the previous nine roads. Only team-mates Latvala and Mikkelsen could theoretically challenge him. In the ARC Eli Evans (Citroën DS3) held a slender points lead after three of the five rounds on 204 points to Molly Taylor (Renault Clio) on 196 points. Evans almost did not start the main event after a accident on the pre-event qualifying and power stage.
Four WRC teams brough 11 World Rally cars to Australia. Volkswagen had Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen, Citroën brought Meeke and Lefebvre, standing in for Østberg, Hyundai had Neuville, Paddon and Sordo, while M-Sport Ford brought Evans and Tanak, plus another Fiesta for Italian Bertelli. This year ARC contenders were able to enter the WRC round, but there were still only 30 starters in the WRC leg plus another 33 cars and buggies in the other ARC categories.
Road position played a big part on Day 1 as Ogier and Latvala struggled on the loose gravel. After the first loop of stages, Meeke was in the lead but only 20 seconds separated the top eight, Evans had a spin and a puncture on the long Newry stage, dropping more than a minute. The second run on Newry caught out Lefebvre who hit a rock. At day end Latvala had moved into the lead ahead of Meeke with Ogier up to third with 40 seconds across the top eight. In the ARC, Simon Evans had retired the Honda Jazz, while brother Eli comfortably took the heat win.
Hayden Paddon took a stage win on the first stage of Day Two, the 51 km Nambucca stage, while Kris Meeke overcame his demons from the previous year to put in a good time and take the overall lead. Another stage win on Valla brough Paddon up to fifth. Ogier struck back on the second pass of Nambucca to get within a couple of seconds of Meeke then took the lead by 0.3 seconds with another win on the dusty night stage. Eli Evans had another great day and won the ARC heat.
The final day saw ogier win all five stages, including the Power Stage, while Latvala overtook Meeke. Mikkelsen picked up a late penalty but otherwise would have finished third. Paddon held onto fifth, well ahead of Tanak and Neuville. Ogier’s win confirmed him and co-driver, Julien Ingrassia as 2015 champions.
Eli Evans took another heat win in the ARC as well as the overall points. Stephen Mackenzie finished second and Molly Taylor third to keep the championship alive.
In the 4WD ARC category, Marcus and Scott Walkem took the round win in their Lancer Evo9 with a fourth, first and third on the three days. Justin Dowel and Toni Feaver won heat 1 but failed to finish the other two says in their G4 Hyundai i20 Prototype. The Classics category was won by Clay Badenoch and Andrew Dunbar in the RA40 Celica with wins on all three days. Favourite Neal Bates did not start. The SidexSide category was again won by Cody Crocker and Greg Foletta.
