The retirement of Possum Bourne in the final stage of the Canberra Rally yesterday provided an added bonus for Palmerston North's Geof Argyle.
The former national champion finished third overall, and but for a broken exhaust manifold four stages from the finish, might well have been second.
The final day of the
opening round of this year's Asia Pacific Rally Championship turned into a demolition derby.
Four of the top 10-placed drivers at the start of the day failed to finish.
Bourne was second until three stages from the end, when his Subaru Impreza got stuck in second gear.
He lost three minutes on that stage and 17 minutes on the next.
But by the time he reported to control for the last stage, Bourne was 15 seconds over his maximum permitted lateness, putting him out of the event.
"We could've struggled through the last stage and got a few points if we'd got there on time," he said.
But it was not to be.
He knew starting a three-day event with a new type of gearbox was risky.
"It's gone well in testing and then we had a few problems at shakedown and we fixed those. Sooner or later we had to run it in a rally. Push it hard and see what happened."
Bourne's retirement has not affected his current second place in the Australian drivers' championship, but it has cost Subaru points in the manufacturers' series.
Argyle started the day fourth overall.
He went to third when Spencer Lowndes rolled in the second stage, but on the next stage, Argyle's exhaust manifold broke and he slipped back to fourth, behind Australian Scott Pedder.
Brian Green from Palmerston North finished in seventh place, having started the final day in 15th.
The severity of the 270km of special stages over the three days resulted in a many mechanical and accident retirements, with only 13 of the 43 starters finishing the rally.
Thirteen of the retirements came on the final day.
