Thousands remember hero of motorsport with huge popular appeal

By IAN STUART OF NZPA and JEREMY REES

Mechanics cringed whenever rally champion Possum Bourne picked up a spanner.

"He was not much of a mechanic and everyone will tell you that. He has never driven a spanner or a hammer," said an old friend, rally driver Neil Allport.

Bourne's skills were with people. The popular driver, who died yesterday in Dunedin Hospital, was an exceptional organiser and had the ability to pick people who were the best in their field.

Yesterday, top motorsport officials, friends, families and strangers stopped to remember the man who had been top in his field.

Among the 6660 tributes emailed to Possum Bourne's website last night, thousands came from those who never followed rallying.

Sometimes among the seven successive Australian Rally wins and the Asian Pacific champion titles in 1993-94 and 2000, Bourne crossed the line from top sportsman to much-loved personality.

Perhaps it was that name, bestowed when, as a teen, he rolled his mother's car avoiding a possum on his way home from a mechanic's course.

Or his face, which could have belonged to the bloke behind the counter at the local Repco.

Or the fact that he came from that New Zealand Everytown, Pukekohe, living and working like hundreds of others who tinker on their cars.

His fellow driver Bruce Herbert, a three-time national champion, remembered the huge following that Bourne had developed. "He's the name that everyone knows.

"The guy is a huge identity throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. At Rally New Zealand, you'd see all these 'Go Possum go' signs.

While he came across as the affable New Zealander, his driving skills were first-rate.

Bourne denied rival Neal Bates more Australian rally championships than Bates likes to remember.

"Everyone aspired to be as good as Possum Bourne," he said.

Bourne, New Zealand's only professional rally driver, was critically injured in a collision with a car driven by fellow driver Mike Baltrop during preparations for the Race to the Sky hillclimb near Cardrona, on April 18, Good Friday.

He had been in a drug-induced coma since undergoing surgery for severe head, chest and leg injuries.

Police are still investigating the circumstances of the crash.

On Monday his family decided that life support would be gradually decreased as his brain injury was so severe that "full life support is no longer in Possum's best interests".

He is survived by his wife, Peggy, and three children, Taylor (8), Spencer (4) and Jazlin (3).

Morrie Chandler, the chairman of Rally New Zealand, said the sport was considering ways it could remember Bourne but nothing would be done without the consultation and consent of his family.

"It would be inappropriate for us to start to make plans until we knew where the family wanted to go."

Mr Chandler said Rally NZ and Motorsport New Zealand would not let Bourne's memory fade.

Motorsport NZ spokesman Kerry Cooper said a memorial would be considered next month.

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."

A member of New Zealand Motorsport's Wall of Fame, Bourne was born in Pukekohe in 1956 and began his rallying career in 1979, driving a Mark 1 Cortina with a V8 engine in which he gained 3rd placing in the first rally he entered.

The result inspired him to become a professional rally driver. By 1983 he had attracted the attention of Japanese carmaker Subaru, who backed his New Zealand rally campaigns.

By the mid-1990s Bourne had established himself as the most successful rally driver in the Southern Hemisphere, a position he cemented with a string of successes right up until his death.

This year Bourne achieved a long-held ambition to drive on the world rally circuit.

A service will be held at the Pukekohe Indian Hall at 1pm next Tuesday followed by a private burial.