Rally New Zealand 1999

The rain gear is out as Tommi Makinen storms through (Photo by Mitsubishi Motors)

The WRC resumed after the summer break in the rainy winter of New Zealand. The rally started on Thursday with a very wet super special which was won by Possum Bourne to the delight of his home audience. The rain continued on Friday making the roads extremely muddy and slippery. Tommi Makinen and Colin McRae emerged to fight over the lead of the rally, until on the 9th special stage McRae's Ford Focus simply stopped due to electrical problems and he was out of the event. This left Tommi Makinen in a very comfortable lead of one minute and 15 secs over Didier Auriol in the second place already after the first day of rallying.

Juha Kankkunen was 3rd after the first leg, but his team-mate Richard Burns retired with gearbox failure on SS8. 4th was a new name, Toni Gardemeister, who replaces Piero Liatti in the Seat in three gravel rallies (NZ, Finland and Britain). Initial leader Possum Bourne was now 5th with his privately entered '98 Subaru Impreza. He was followed by Thomas Radstrom and Carlos Sainz, who lost four minutes on SS9 when he was stuck on 1st gear for more than 10 kilometers.

The weather cleared a bit on the second day but that didn't change Tommi Makinen's position. He stayed firmly in the lead with no problems to mention. Didier Auriol went wide in a corner on SS14 hitting a rock which ripped off the left rear wheel, and had to run about 17 kilometres of the stage with only three wheels. The Frenchman dropped to 5th and Juha Kankkunen inherited the 2nd spot, 1:36 behind the leader. Already it was clear that the sensation of the rally was the young Finn Toni Gardemeister who was now 3rd, making it an all Finnish top three. Gardemeister's team-mate at Seat Harri Rovanpera retired with an engine failure. The margins were really large, Thomas Radstrom on the 4th spot was already 6 minutes behind the leader. Sainz lost more time in an off and was still in seventh position.

The new kid in the block - Toni Gardemeister and co-driver Paavo Lukander (Photo by Seat Sport)

Thomas Radstrom who was driving very comfortably in 4th place had an off on the first stage of the final day, not damaging the car very much, but getting stuck in the soft ground on the side of the road. He couldn't get the car back on the road and faced a rather frustrating retirement. That was the only change in the leaderboard during the final leg, which meant that the Rally of New Zealand finished with only Finnish drivers and co-drivers on the podium. Tommi Makinen took his first win in NZ, and an important one, as he is now 11 points ahead of Didier Auriol in the Championship. Second was Mr. Consistency, Juha Kankkunen, again a solid drive with no major problems. And third, the new star, Toni Gardemeister showing great potential already in the age of 24 years. This was also the first podium finish for Seat, which seems now to be joining the league of top teams, especially as they are introducing the new version of the Cordoba in the next event, Rally Finland.

Didier Auriol finished 4th and 5th was Possum Bourne, a nice result in his home event. Carlos Sainz was 6th after all his troubles. 7th was German Toyota driver Matthias Kahle and 8th Makinen's team-mate at Mitsubishi, Freddy Loix who was just learning the fast gravel roads. Gr. N winner Gustavo Trelles was 9th. F2 was won by Kenneth Eriksson with the Hyundai.

Next up, it's even faster gravel roads at the Rally Finland which starts on August 20th.