Possum Bourne wrapped up the Asia Pacific rally championship with a round to spare by winning the Rally of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Bourne finished the three-day event in his Subaru Impreza nearly five minutes in front of his closest rival, Malaysian Karamjit Singh.
Even if Bourne does not finish the final event in Thailand at the end of the month, Singh can not overtake him on the points table.
Bourne and his Kiwi team have become the first New Zealanders to win an FIA (world controlling body of motorsport) sanctioned international championship.
"That was the goal we set at the start of the season," Bourne said. "Everybody had to work hard this weekend to get us there.
"We had a smooth run today, but at times yesterday I thought the series might not be decided until Thailand."
Bourne had to complete one-and-a-half stages with no power-steering and a rapidly failing battery on Saturday after the power-steering failure also broke the alternator belt.
He was forced to turn off all the non-essential electrical components, including the engine cooling fans, so there was enough battery power to keep the Impreza's engine running through the stages.
On the same stage, rally leader Katushiko Taguchi retired with broken engine mounts and Bourne found himself in the lead, although Singh, who had been five minutes behind him, closed to within a minute.
"The guys did a great job fixing the Subaru up and it hasn't missed a beat since," Bourne said.
At the end of Saturday's competition Bourne had only a 69s advantage over Singh. By the finish it was 4m 53s as Bourne won all six stages yesterday in the hot, humid palm oil and rubber plantation stages used for the event.
The victory in the four-year-old Impreza WRX has extended Bourne's lead in the championship to 26 points.
It is the third time he has taken the title, having won it in 1993 and 1994, when he drove for the England-based Subaru factory team.
He said: "This was just as sweet as the first time, because we had to put all the logistics of it together ourselves as well as raising the budget from Caltex and Subaru."
- NZPA
Motorsport: Third victory just as sweet for Bourne
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