Our Tours - Rally Australia - 2009
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Miko Hirvonen Rally Australia |
Rally Australia is all over for another two years and “Rally Tours NZ” fielded a small group of 21 Rally enthusiasts, the majority of whom were our loyal supporters from Australia, New Zealand and Japan including a couple of chaps with Irish heritage.
Rally Australia 2009 will be remembered in rally history for a couple reasons. Firstly the opposition from the “Greenies” who right up until the last moment tried their best to close down the 09 round of WRC Rally Australia. They were then successful in having two of the Friday stages cancelled by positioning large rocks on the stage. They continued their low key but very visible demonstrations along the roadside en-route to the Kyogle stages on all days and near the ceremonial finish. The good news was, that for every protester on the roadside there were two supporters expressing appreciation for the rally being in the area and welcoming the Rally crews and spectators alike. The most hilarious sign of support was seen on the Saturday and Sunday stages and was crudely painted on a bed sheet. “Koalas Love Antilag”
A good result at Rally Australia was crucial for both the Citroen and Ford Teams, to accumulate manufacturer’s points and more so for drivers Miko Hirvonen and Sebestian Loeb who are locked in a battle for the driver’s championship. So tactical moves from both parties were inevitable. Jarri- Mati Latvala set the pace on Friday with Citroen’s Dani Sordo in hot pursuit.
On Saturday night both teams played their cards and for the first time in recent history the top 3 drivers went into park ferme with just 00.1 of a second between them. How that was manipulated still amazes me. However the last 2 stages of the day around the Murwillumbah tarmac superstage apparently do not count toward the next day’s start position so that left Hirvonen as the road sweeper on day 3, a position all the top 3 runners were trying to avoid. Based on that the result looked like a foregone conclusion and not what Ford or Hirvonen wanted. Hirvonen did his best, narrowing the gap but had to settle for second position with a 40 second deficit leaving his lead advantage in the driver’s championship at just 1 point.
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Hayden Paddon Rally Australia |
However to add even more controversy to Rally Australia’s history at about 21.00 news filtered out during the rally party at the Mantra hotel that the 3 Citroen cars had been penalised 1 minute for stabiliser bar homologation irregularities handing the 1st position and additional drivers points to Hirvonen. That will now almost guarantee Hirvonen the driver’s championship with 2 rallies to go this year.
The drive of the event however came from our own Kiwi man Hayden Paddon and his Team Green. Hayden took maximum points on the first 7 stages of Friday to clean up the Australian opposition and to be granted a drive in 6 WRC events next year as part of the Pirelli Star Driver scholarship. Hayden then continued with an amazing drive throughout the event consistently posting top 10 times to finish 9th overall and beating two of the WRC competitors and all of the PWRC entrants. Rally Tours congratulates Hayden, his co driver John Kennard and Team Green on great result.
A special thanks to all our Clients who made the effort to attend Rally Australia and the Rally Sport News team who arranged this year’s tour on our behalf. We now look forward to a new and interesting Rally NZ in May 2010. Next year’s Rally NZ will again use a combination of roads to the north and south of Auckland with an Auckland base. Information on this event will be forwarded as details become available.
Some images of the event taken by our clients -
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