RallySport Magazine September 2016

FAMOUS STAGES: BUNNINGS 1996
THE BIG WET
Back in the late 1980s and early
1990s, the newest event on the
World Rally Championship calendar
quickly established itself as an innovator,
and set standards that perhaps
have never been bettered since.
Rally Australia burst on to the WRC
scene in 1989, and over the coming
years the Langley Park Super Special
Stage and the stages in the Bunnings
forest complex, south of Perth, became
legendary the world over. We’ll look
closely at Langley Park some other
time, but for a real rally fan, spectating
simply didn’t get any better than a day
at ‘Bunnings’.
The complex featured an area large
enough to ‘house’ the entire service
park, with three stages starting and
finishing all within easy walking
distance.
By walking less than a kilometre, rally
fans could watch high-speed corners,
low-speed corners, big jumps and
a spectacular water crossing in the
surrounds of a natural amphitheatre
that was perfect for spectators. The
area provided a full day of rally viewing,
in one location.
There’s probably not a rally fan who
hasn’t seen spectacular images of Colin
McRae launching his Subaru Impreza
over the two big Bunnings jumps,
before sliding sideways through the
water splash and up the hill to the finish
line. Such images are now as iconic as
32 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016
cars sliding their way over Monte
Carlo’s Col de Turini, or flying over
Finland’s Ouninpohja jumps.
Some of the most memorable
Bunnings images come from
1996, with heavy rain on the day
of the rally swelling the water
crossing to a level higher than
it had ever been before. As
spectators arrived and took their
vantage points, the water level
was literally rising before their
very eyes and the anticipation
that something special was
about to happen gained
momentum.
As a treat for spectators that
year, touring car legends Peter
Brock and Dick Johnson were
given a Commodore and a
Falcon to drive through the
famous Bunnings stage before
the rally cars, helping to get
the crowds ready for the real
action when the WRC stars hit
the stage.
While Johnson managed to cross the
ford in his Ford, Brock’s Holden was left
stranded, much to the delight of the
hundreds of onlookers. The volunteer
marshals weren’t as impressed, though,
because they were forced to wade into
the swollen creek to push Brock and his
Commodore onto drier ground.
But once the real action started,
things really got interesting. While
Tommi
Makinen made it through unscathed,
Colin McRae wasn’t so lucky, and the
sight of his father, Jimmy, knee deep in
water as he pushed the stricken Subaru
out of the crossing is one that is etched
in many memories.
When Carlos Sainz’s Ford Escort
ground to a halt, co-driver Luis Moya
waded across the water (with no regard
Photos: Stuart Bowes, Martin Holmes, Peter Whitten