Rally driver Possum Bourne in critical condition after crash

By THERESA GARNER

New Zealand rally legend Possum Bourne is tonight critically ill in hospital after a head-on smash near Wanaka.

The crash happened while he was driving a family car on a public road to check a race course.

Rescuers took more than an hour to cut him free as his distraught wife, Peggy, who arrived with crew shortly after the accident looked on.

Bourne's family were with him to support him in this weekend's Race to the Sky hillclimb, an event he won two years ago. He has two sons, Taylor and Spencer, and a daughter, Jazlin.

Minutes before the accident, Bourne told a reporter it was time he had some luck after mechanical problems in recent races.

He was checking the Waiorau Snowfarm Rd used for the event when the accident happened. On his way down the hill in the Cardrona Valley soon after midday, his Subaru Forester and a Jeep Cherokee driven by another competitor, Mike Barltrop, collided.

In a motor-racing career of more than 20 years, Bourne had until today suffered only a broken wrist at the wheel.

Lavina Good, who was filming the event, said Bourne had told her the hill climb was his favourite event.

"He loves it, his kids love it and within 20 minutes he's had this car accident, and I'm looking at his wife, devastated, crying in shock on the bank, looking at her husband," she said.

"He said to me that he had three lots of bad luck lately, after the Rally of New Zealand, and he said it was time that he had a bit of good luck."

She said she was told Bourne was a "grade 1", the most serious condition in medical terms. "He was breathing OK and he had a pulse, but he had severe head injuries and was stuck in the car.

"He was coming in and out of consciousness."

Bourne was flown by helicopter to Dunedin Hospital with head injuries and broken legs.

Bourne, who turned 47 on Sunday and had also just celebrated his wedding anniversary, was to have driven the much-modified 500 horsepower Subaru Impreza World Rally car he built for the 14km course on the Waiorau mountain range.

Bourne said before the crash that after five years of competing in the event he was starting to know the course well. "There's a lot of corners, but I'm finally starting to remember it all."

Event organiser Grant Aitken said a convoy of competitors driving road cars had been inspecting the road under controlled conditions. Barltrop, 38, a Queenstown driver, was the last in the 11-car convoy. Dusty conditions might have contributed to the collision.

Barltrop has a broken leg, but his passenger was uninjured.

Police say the vehicles were travelling at less than 60km/h.

Mr Aitken said Bourne had been the favourite to win the event.

Former rally driver Neil Allport hoped his old rival would pull through.

Allport, from Karaka, manages a British team competing against Bourne in the World Rally Championship.

"We've been competitors for many, many years, but we do it for the love of the sport and accept the dangers," he said tonight. "It's just hard to believe how something like this can happen. We compete in cars at high speeds in forests and places you would consider far more dangerous than a piece of road open to the public."

The Cardrona race will go ahead as planned, with practice tomorrow morning, and racing tomorrow and Sunday. Mr Aitken said this was what Bourne would have wanted.

The course has nine hairpin turns, 135 corners, and the longest straight is 300m. It climbs from 450m to 1500m. Competitors take just over eight minutes to complete it at speeds up to 225km/h.

Bourne's website lists his heroes as Sir Peter Blake and Sir Richard Hadlee, who "both left at the peak of their careers".

Nearly 10 years ago, Bourne's co-driver, Rodger Freeth, was killed when they crashed out of Rally Australia. In 2001, he said: "If I'd given up or if I hadn't seen it through, he would have died for absolutely nothing."

Possum Bourne Motorsport


Possum Bourne PWRC