In a week’s time we should be gearing up for the long-awaited return of Rally New Zealand to the WRC – but the Coronavirus had other ideas.
So, instead of lamenting the event’s demise in 2020, I thought it timely to look back to 2003 when Rally New Zealand had, perhaps, its highest quality entry list ever.
Of course, that’s open to speculation on many counts, but it’s also a comment that’s hard to argue when you look through the entry list.
For the early-April, Propecia sponsored event, there were 80 entries. Of those, 17 – yes, 17 – were full factory World Rally Cars.
That’s 21.25% of the whole field. Can you believe that? Eight of those drivers had won, or would go on to win, the World Rally Championship for drivers!
It’s a who’s who of rallying at the time.
Peugeot had entered three of their pretty 206 WRCs, piloted by Marcus Gronholm, Richard Burns and Harri Rovanpera (yep, young Kalle’s dad).
At Ford there was Markko Martin, Francois Duval and Mikko Hirvonen in Focus RS WRCs, and a two-car Subaru team featured Petter Solberg and Tommi Makinen in Impreza WRC 03s.
It was the era of Hyundai’s first crack at the WRC, and they had entered three Accent WRCs for Armin Schwarz, Freddy Loix and the Finn, Jussi Valimaki.
Skoda were there too, contesting the WRC’s top category in Octavias with veteran Didier Auriol and Toni Gardmeister.
Not to be outdone, Citroen arrived from France with a three-car team with drivers you may have heard of …. Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, and a young upstart named Sebastien Loeb.
Oh, and to top things off, Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe had a one-car entry for Alister McRae.
In all there 21 World Rally Cars in the field – that’s over 25% of the total entries.
Such was the quality of the field, New Zealand great Possum Bourne – running a Group N Subaru in 2003 – was seeded 31st in the field, yet even he was ahead of former World Rally Champion, Stig Blomqvist.
I remember spectating at the rally like it was yesterday and, as much as it pains me to say it now, we actually got sick of watching World Rally Cars. There were simply THAT many of them!
Incredibly, the attrition rate was so low that at every spectator location we could watch 15+ WRC cars in action, and often we were still that many cars away from seeing Possum slide past us.
Having seven fully-fledged manufacturer teams contesting the World Rally Championship that year was like a dream come true for the Promoters and the fans.
Seventeen years on, there are only two factory teams, plus the factory-supported M-Sport Ford squad.
How things have changed.
For the record, the 2003 Propecia Rally New Zealand was won by Marcus Gronholm, who led home Richard Burns in a dominant Peugeot 1-2.
The flying French cars were a couple of minutes clear of Petter Solberg’s Subaru, with Sebastien Loeb’s Citroen and Toni Gardemeister’s Skoda in fourth and fifth.
The great Colin McRae crashed his Xsara WRC on stage seven, while Possum Bourne suffered engine failure on stage six – tragically, just three weeks before his life-ending accident in the South Island.
We may have missed our chance to see the WRC’s finest on New Zealand soil this year, but looking back to 2003 at least fills us with some happy memories.
And never, ever, will I complain about too many World Rally Cars again!
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