Possum Bourne

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Peter "Possum" Bourne
Peter "Possum" Bourne

Peter Raymond George "Possum" Bourne (April 13, 1956 - April 30, 2003) was a champion New Zealand rally car driver. He died tragically under non-competitive circumstances while driving on a public road, that was to be the track for an upcoming race.

Contents

[edit] Awards

He was a three time winner of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and the Australian Rally Championship seven times consecutively, amongst many other titles.[1]

Years won Event
1992 Australian Rally Championship (Group A)
1993-1994, 2000 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship
1996-2002 Australian Rally Championship
1989, 1991, 2000 Ashley Forest Rally Sprint
2001 Queenstown Race to the Sky
2002 Hokkaido Rally Japan
2002 Rally New Zealand (Group N)

[edit] Family

Bourne lived in Pukekohe, Auckland, near his workshop. He lived with his wife, Peggy Bourne, and three children, Taylor, Spencer, and Jazlin. Bourne earned his nickname, "Possum", the night he crashed his mother's Humber, while trying to avoid a possum in the middle of the road.

His autobiography, Bourne to Rally was completed just days before his untimely death. A bronze memorial statue of Possum, unveiled a year after his death, now stands overlooking the event he loved the most. In 2005, Peggy Bourne entered Race to the Sky, despite having had no formal rally driving experience, as a tribute to her late husband.

[edit] Car of choice

Bourne was best known for his exploits behind the wheel of Subaru cars, initially the RX (the turbocharged version of the Leone), then the Legacy (rebadged as the Liberty for the Australian market because of a perceived clash with charity organisation Legacy Australia).

But it would be the Impreza WRX that he would become most associated with, driving for the Prodrive Subaru World Rally Team in Rally New Zealand and also in Indonesia, partnered by Kenneth Eriksson in the mid 1990s, before going on to win multiple Australian titles with his own team.

Subaru Japan even awarded him a black limited edition STi version of the Impreza for personal use.

[edit] Roj

Possum's best friend and co-driver, Dr. Rodger "Roj" Freeth, died in a freak crash during the 1993 Rally Australia, and the crash almost ended Possum's career. After a lot of soul-searching, he returned to the driver's seat aiming to honour Freeth's legacy. From the time of Freeth's death, Bourne displayed a "ROJ" license plate on the front of his rally cars.

[edit] Death

Bourne received serious head injuries in a non-competitive car crash on April 18, 2003, and died in Dunedin Public Hospital on April 30, 2003 after life support was withdrawn.[2] He was driving the Race to the Sky track, which is normally a public road, for the event held in Cardona, near Wanaka, New Zealand.[1] Driving his Subaru Forester, he collided head on with a Jeep Cherokee driven by rally driver Mike Barltrop who claimed that Possum was speeding. Mr Barlthrop was later arrested on a dangerous driving charge.[3] After pleading guilty to aggravated careless use causing death, Barltrop was sentenced in the Invercargill District Court to 300 hours community work, disqualified from driving for 18 months, and ordered to pay $10,000 reparations, divided between the intensive care unit of Dunedin Public Hospital and the Possum Bourne Education trust.[2]

At the time of his death, Possum had just re-entered the world stage, driving a production-class Subaru Impreza in the PWRC.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Kiwi rally hero dies. BBC Sport (29 April 2003). Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
  2. ^ a b Devereux, Monique (November 12, 2004). Rally driver sentenced for Possum Bourne's death. New Zealand Herald. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
  3. ^ Possum Bourne crash arrest - Eastern Police news release. New Zealand Police (11 September 2003). Retrieved on 2008-03-13.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Neal Bates		 Winner of the Australian Rally Championship
1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002		 Succeeded by
Cody Crocker