2015 Kennards Hire Rally Australia

Table of Contents

Results and entry list
- ARC Day Results and NSWRC Results
Route
Other event documents

Rally Australia was held on November 17-20 in the Coffs Harbour region of NSW. Clerk of Course was Wayne Kenny.

World Rally Championship Round 14

Australian Rally Championship Round 5

NSW Rally Championship Round 5

This year Rally Australia was the final WRC round and Sébastien Ogier (VW Polo) had already secured the title several rounds earlier, with six wins, two seconds and two thirds across the thirteen previous rounds. The runner-up spot was still up for grabs with Mikkelsen needing a win and Neuville to finish fifth or lower. With Volkswagen announcing their withdrawal from the WRC, drivers were looking to impress the remaining team bosses in hopes of having a seat for 2017.

In contrast, the ARC was tightly balanced with Simon Evans (Subaru) on 251, Molly Taylor (Subaru) on 246 and Harry Bates (Corolla S2000) on 245. With 101 points up for grabs, the title was anyone’s.

After the withdrawal of Citroën, only three WRC teams brought nine World Rally cars to Australia. Volkswagen had Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen, Hyundai had Neuville, Paddon and Sordo, while M-Sport Ford brought Tanak, Camilli and Østberg. This year ARC contenders were able to enter the WRC round, swelling the field to 60 cars with another dozen or so cars running in the NSWRC only competing on Days 2 and 3.

As usual, road position helped the later runners and by the end of the first loop of stages Mikkelsen had pulled out a 14 second lead over Paddon then Ogier and Neuville. Latvala had hit a bridge on SS1 and dropped a lot of time, eventually finishing the day in 18th place. The second pass over the stages allowed Ogier and Neuville to overtake Paddon, but Mikkelsen held his lead.

Paddon overtook Ogier on the first loop of stages on Day 3 but Ogier struck back in the afternoon to reclaim second, with Paddon third and Neuville now 30 seconds behind his team-mate. Mikkelsen had brake issues and allowed Ogier to finish the day just 2 second off the lead.

The final day saw Camilli roll out while seventh, Ogier overtook Mikkelsen but then Ogier spun and handed the lead back to Mikkelsen. It was Mikkelsen’s third WRC round win but it was not enough to claim the runner-up title, with Neuville finishing third after Paddon had a puncture on the day’s first stage and just pipped Sordo for fourth place.

The ARC event was full of drama. Simon Evans won Day 1 with Bates second, Mark Pedder third and Molly Taylor in fourth. Day 2 saw Evans lose the lead with two punctures on the second pass of the long Nambucca stage. He finished the day in twelfth but seventh among the ARC registered crews, picking up just 9 points. Bates won the day to move two points ahead of Evans with Taylor still 10 points adrift.

The final day would be crucial for the title. It was Bates’ turn to strike trouble, puncturing on SS20 and finishing day with just 9 points plus 30 for third overall for a total of 321. Evans won the Day, 15 seconds behind local Nathan Quinn who was not registered for ARC points, so Evans picked up the full 20 points plus 26 for fourth overall for a total of 327. Mark Pedder looked like finishing the day in second and first overall, but on Dale Moscatt booked in a minute early at a control prior to the Power Stage. This elevated Taylor to second on the day gaining her 17 points and first overall with 40 points for a total of 329, giving her the national title.

Results and entry list

WRC Entry list

ARC Entry List

These results show all WRC, ARC and Classics placings, as all of these completed the same stages.

Place	Driver	Ctry/St	Co-Driver	Ctry/St	Car	Time	ARC	Classics
1	Andreas Mikkelsen	Nor	Anders Jæger	Nor	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	2:46:05.7
2	Sébastien Ogier	Fra	Julien Ingrassia	Fra	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	2:46:20.6
3	Thierry Neuville	Bel	Nicolas Gilsoul	Bel	Hyundai NG i20 WRC	2:47:18.3
4	Hayden Paddon	NZ	John Kennard	NZ	Hyundai NG i20 WRC	2:47:32.4
5	Dani Sordo	Esp	Marc Martí	Esp	Hyundai NG i20 WRC	2:47:34.0
6	Mads Østberg	Nor	Ola Fløene	Nor	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2:47:47.2
7	Ott Tänak	Est	Raigo Mõlder	Est	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2:49:10.0
8	Esapekka Lappi	Fin	Janne Ferm	Fin	Škoda Fabia R5	2:53:38.0
9	Jari-Matti Latvala	Fin	Miikka Anttila	Fin	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	2:54:02.6
10	Lorenzo Bertelli	Ita	Simone Scattolin	Ita	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	2:54:05.8
11	Nicolás Fuchs	Peru	Fernando Mussano	Arg	Škoda Fabia R5	2:58:13.8
12	Hubert Ptaszek	Pol	Maciej Szczepaniak	Pol	Peugeot 208 T16	3:00:20.9
13	Molly Taylor	NSW	William Hayes	WA	Subaru WRX STI	3:08:06.5	1
14	Mark Pedder	Vic	Dale Moscatt	NSW	Peugeot 208 AP4	3:08:45.8	2
15	Harry Bates	ACT	John McCarthy	Qld	Toyota Corolla TRD S2000	3:10:32.5	3
16	Mick Patton	ACT	Bernie Webb	NSW	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	3:13:12.0	4
	Neal Bates	ACT	Coral Taylor	NSW	Toyota Celica RA40	3:13:36.7		1
17	Simon Evans	Vic	Ben Searcy	WA	Subaru Impreza WRX	3:13:43.6	5
18	Bradley Markovic	WA	Glenn Macneall	WA	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:14:24.0	6
19	Tony Sullens	NSW	Kaylie Newell	NSW	Citroën DS3 R3T	3:15:31.3
20	Chris Higgs	NSW	Allan Harryman	UK	Subaru Impreza WRX	3:18:38.9	7
21	Tom Clarke	NSW	Ryan Preston	Qld	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3:23:04.9	8
	Tom Dermody	Qld	Eoin Moynihan	NSW	Ford Escort RS	3:23:08.5		2
22	Stuart Collison	ACT	Steve Glenney	Tas	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:23:53.8	9
23	Dylan King	WA	Daymon Nicoli	WA	Subaru Impreza STi N12	3:23:59.1	10
	Thomas Ryan	NSW	Nicholas Ryan	NSW	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII	3:25:21.7	11
24	Michel Fabre	Fra	Maxime Vilmot	Fra	Citroën DS3 R3T Max	3:27:18.8
	Clay Badenoch	Qld	Catriona Kelly	Qld	Toyota Celica RA40	3:28:08.5		3
	Matthew Ruggles	NSW	Penny O’Doherty	NSW	Triumph TR7	3:29:09.7		4
25	Adam Kaplan	NSW	Aleshia Penney	NSW	Mazda RX-7	3:29:11.5	12
	Mal Keough	NSW	Pip Bennett	NSW	Audi Quattro S1 Replica	3:29:28.2		5
	Martinn McCormack	Ire	Barney Mitchell	UK	Ford Escort RS	3:31:40.0		6
26	Clay Weston	Qld	Brendan Wrigley	Qld	Ford Fiesta R200	3:32:31.6	13
27	John Stilling	NSW	David Stephens	NSW	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	3:35:22.9
28	Bethany Cullen	NSW	Mel McMinn	ACT	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.5	3:35:44.9	14
29	Peter Dunn	NSW	Dennis Neagle	NSW	Subaru Impreza STi N11 Spec C	3:36:49.5	15
30	Lindsay Collits	NSW	Brad Dawson	Qld	Holden Commodore	3:38:13.1	16
31	Khalid Mohammad Al-Suwaidi	Qat	Marshall Clarke	UK	Škoda Fabia R5	3:47:27.1
32	Jourdan Serderidis	Gre	Frédéric Miclotte	Bel	Citroën DS3 R5	3:52:41.6
33	Nathan Quinn	NSW	David Calder	NZ	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	4:02:53.7	14
34	Brendan Reeves	Vic	Rhianon Gelsomino	Vic	Subaru Impreza STi N12	4:12:59.2
	Mark Fitton	NSW	Carol Fitton	NSW	Holden Commodore Ute	4:32:50.7		7
	Jeff Davies	NSW	Dane Booker	NSW	Datsun 1600	4:47:35.3		8

WRC Stage results

ARC Day Results and NSWRC Results

ARC: Day 1. Day 2, Day 3

ARC Classics: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

NSWRC: Day 2, Day 3, Overall

Route

A new super special stage on the Coffs Harbour foreshore was run twice on both Friday and Saturday evening. Fridays had five stages repeated to the far south, The three stages around Taylors Arm, location of the “Pub with no beer” from the previous year were used, but the Newry stage was significantly shortened. A new spectator friendly special stage was run at the Raleigh Raceway. Saturday was almost identical to the previous year but there were two more runs at the Raleigh Raceway. Sunday’s three stages remained close to Coffs, with one stage in Bucca, two along Settles Road and two in Wedding Bells, somewhat shortened from the previous year.

Itinerary and stage plots