The 2019 Rally Australia (also known as Kennards Hire Rally Australia 2019) was a
motor racing event for
rally cars that was scheduled to be held over four days between 14 and 17 November 2019.
The event was cancelled because of an ongoing
bushfire emergency in the area. The event was to mark the twenty-eighth running of
Rally Australia and was the final round of the
2019 World Rally Championship
The 2019 FIA World Rally Championship was the forty-seventh season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. T ...
,
WRC-2 Pro class and
World Rally Championship-2. The 2019 event would have been based in
Coffs Harbour
Coffs Harbour is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 as per 2021 census. The Gumbaynggirr ...
in
New South Wales, and contested over twenty-five
special stages with a total a competitive distance of . Rally Australia will not be featured in the
2020 championship.
Jari-Matti Latvala and
Miikka Anttila were the defending rally winners. Their team,
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, were the defending manufacturers' winners.
Alberto Heller
Alberto is the Romance languages, Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic languages, Germanic ''Albert (given name), Albert''. It is used in Italian language, Italian, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language, ...
and
José Diaz were the defending rally winners in the World Rally Championship-2 category, but did not participate in the event.
As a result of the rally's cancellation,
Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT became the manufacturers' champions, while
Pierre-Louis Loubet and
Vincent Landais won the divers' and co-drivers' titles respectively in the
WRC-2 class.
Background
Championship standings prior to the event
Newly-crowned champions
Ott Tänak and
Martin Järveoja
Martin Järveoja (; born 18 August 1987) is an Estonian rally co-driver. He is currently teamed with Ott Tänak and is competing for Hyundai in the World Rally Championship.
Rally career
He is the son of Estonian politician Toomas Järveoja, ...
led the both drivers' and co-drivers' championships with a thirty-six-point ahead of
Thierry Neuville and
Nicolas Gilsoul. Defending world champions
Sébastien Ogier and
Julien Ingrassia were third, a further ten points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers,
Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held an eighteen-point lead over
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.
In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, newly-crowned champions
Kalle Rovanperä and
Jonne Halttunen led by sixty-one points in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively.
Mads Østberg and
Torstein Eriksen were second, with
Gus Greensmith and
Elliott Edmondson further eight points behind in third. In the manufacturers' championship, manufacturers' champion
Å koda Motorsport led
M-Sport Ford WRT by seventy-four points, with
Citroën Total over a hundred points behind in third.
In the World Rally Championship-2 standings,
Pierre-Louis Loubet and
Vincent Landais led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by three points respectively.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz and
Maciej Szczepaniak were second, while
Benito Guerra
Benito Iván Guerra Latapà (born 25 March 1985) is a Mexican rally driver competing for Citroën Racing, a privateer team in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2013, with his co-driver Borja Rozada.
In 2012 he won the Production World Ra ...
were third in the drivers' standings and
Yaroslav Fedorov in the co-drivers' standings.
Entry list
The following crews were due to entered into the rally. The event was scheduled to open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2, WRC-2 Pro and
privateer entries not registered to score points in any championship. A total of twenty-six entries were received, with twelve crews were scheduled to enter with World Rally Cars and three were scheduled to enter the World Rally Championship-2. This was later reduced to eleven World Rally Cars when
Citroën
Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...
withdrew a planned entry for
Mads Østberg and
Torstein Eriksen.
Route
Only five stages from the
2018 event were scheduled to return to the 2019 itinerary. Two of these were due to run in opposite direction to the 2018 rally.
Planned itinerary
All dates and times are
AEDT (
UTC+11).
Bushfire emergency

In the week before the rally, the New South Wales
Mid North Coast region was devastated by unprecedented
bushfires. Organisers of the rally announced plans to run the event over a shortened route if conditions deteriorated further, while organisers of the
Australian Rally Championship
The Australia Rally Championship (ARC) is Australia's leading road motor rally competition. A multi-event national championship has been held each year since 1968.
Competition - to 2010
The Australia Rally Championship takes in some of the c ...
— of which Rally Australia was planned to be the final round — cancelled the series' involvement in the rally. A revised itinerary featuring of competitive stages was submitted to the FIA for approval. However, the rally was cancelled eventually.
Report
World Rally Cars
Championship standings
*Bold text indicates 2019 World Champions.
World Rally Championship-2 Pro
Championship standings
*Bold text indicates 2019 World Champions.
World Rally Championship-2
Championship standings
*Bold text indicates 2019 World Champions.
Notes
References
External links
*
* 2019
Rally Australia in
e-wrc website'
* Th
official websiteof the
World Rally Championship
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rally Australia, 2019
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
2019 in Australian motorsport
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
November 2019 sports events in Australia
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...