Obituary: Possum Bourne

By IAN STUART

Rally driver. Died aged 47

Mechanics cringed whenever rally champion Possum Bourne picked up a spanner and headed towards his car, an old friend and rival said today.

Former driver and three times national rally champion Neil Allport said everyone in the motor racing industry knew Bourne was hopeless with a spanner and would always head him off if he picked one up and made for his car.

"He was not much of a mechanic and everyone will tell you that. You would never give him a spanner or a hammer. You just cringed if he picked up a tool and walked towards a car," Allport said today.

However, Bourne was an exceptionally good organiser and had the ability to pick people who were the best in their field, Allport said today, just hours after Bourne died in Dunedin Hospital.

"He led from the front. He was always the one standing at the front. You never saw him standing behind someone else.

"That played a huge part in his success in the early days and got him to be where he wanted to be."

He said Bourne knew after his third place in a V8 Cortina in the Woodhill State Forest Rally in 1979 in Auckland that motorsport would be his life.

He said he met Bourne when they were both driving silage trucks in south Auckland.

In 1978, Allport borrowed a Mark 1 Cortina for his first year in rally driving, the same year Bourne began.

"He had a Mark 1 Cortina with a V8 engine in it."

In the years he raced against Bourne they had a mutual respect for each other and never had a disagreement.

"It was quite amazing really. I unfortunately can't say the same about a lot of other people I competed against, but I can say that about Possum."

"He was exceptionally driven. There was no other business than driving cars. That is what motivated him.

"He would fight to the death."

He said Bourne never had a hidden agenda.

"What you saw is what you got. That was the appeal.

"He shoots from the hip and says it how it is, straight up and honest."

The scar of Bourne's death would take years to heal given how much he had contributed to the sport, Allport said.

"The sport will go on... . I don't know where the next Possum Bourne will come from," Allport said.

Motorsport New Zealand spokesman Kerry Cooper said a memorial to the legacy of Possum Bourne would probably be considered next month.

He said Bourne never let his success go to his head and never had an ego which needed massaging.

"Possum was just a genuine, really nice Kiwi guy and he never let that ego element get in the way.

"He was genuinely happy to shoot the breeze with anybody and everybody. He was great with kids, fantastic with kids."

He said that even with inferior equipment, Bourne would always perform with distinction against the "rock stars" of rallying.

"It is that real thing that plucks at a Kiwi's heart - not enough money, not the right gear, built at home, that kind of thing but look at it go.

"That epitomises the guy. He was a real battler," he said.