Note to all canberrans

[Falcon500]

If you have a spare moment youmight be able to catch a glimpse of the ralliart magnas at commonwelth motors phillip (drive your dream) There are4 names on each window the only one i rember is Dunkerton...it was explained to me(by avery avid Rally fan and also rally driver navigator who does someof our deliverys) that hes undoubtly one of the best rally drivers in the country haveing won numerous several smaller international rallys and being the higest ranked aussie in a WRC event! the cars a re a prmotional stunt by mitsu autraliaand arnt very far removed from stockonly toteing beefed up suspension and a roll cage...they even have full interior and are also automatic (albiet with the 5 speed sports shift....) If the cars do wellit might boost sales of the magna and hopfully the VR-X AWD models...itis a 2ndmake intorduced to a one make series dedicated to Subarus...the small 2.5 litre toteing things...just thought id spread the good news mitsu is getting back into motorsport it seems...ill look around the mitsu website see if i can find any picsof the rally cars....

[Falcon500]

RALLYING'S SENIOR CITIZEN IS BACK AND LOOKING FOR SOME LUXURY - 06/05/2004
In 1989 Ross Dunkerton was driving one of Mitsubishi's rapid and tough Galant VR4 rally cars in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.

Then 42 the wily West Aussie and five times Australian Rally Champion had no idea that in 2004 at the tender age of 57 he would be called out of retirement to again be a part of a Mitsubishi rally assault.

Dunkerton's new rally weapon will again be all wheel drive, but this time it will be a car that most people consider more at home taking the kids to weekend sport and the family to the coast for annual holidays. His mount is a Mitsubishi Magna VR-X all wheel drive, run under the Team Mitsubishi Ralliart banner.

This weekend will be almost nine years since Dunkerton announced his retirement from top level rallying, announcing his decision to leave the sport after winning the 1995 Rally of Canberra in a Mitsubishi Lancer.

Dunkerton won the Canberra Rally four times in a career that had some incredible highlights. Along with five Australian titles, he won the Asia Pacific Championship twice, the Malaysian Rally Championship four times and 99 outright rally wins, 33 of them in a Ralliart run machine, in a career that spanned 33 years.

It is in fact 26 years since Ross Dunkerton contested his first Canberra International (then known as the Castrol) driving of all things a factory entered Datsun ute.

Now he is back in a luxury rally car that Dunko reckons fits his station in life

"The 10-CD stacker and air-conditioning will suit me down to the ground." Dunkerton said. "My wife, Lisa, reckons I'm like clothes - if I hung around long enough I was sure to come back into fashion!"

Ross says the Magna is incredibly agile and will surprise a lot of people with its speed and spectacular style in the Canberra forests and at all of the remaining ARC rounds.

"It goes bloody hard and is very easy to drive. Certainly the five speed sequential automatic is going to be a factor in reducing driver fatigue over a long tough Canberra event.

It will be a far cry from the early days in the Galant VR4 when it was hot, and very basic, at least we have some luxury to enjoy the drive through the Canberra forests these days" Dunko laughs

Don't be fooled by his flippant attitude. Dunkerton is still fiercely competitive and will be one to watch in Canberra this weekend.

This is from the ralliart australia website Ross dunkerton is his name and he was out at the wattle snack bar haveing a steak sandwhich while me and our resident rally navigator where cheaking out the cars and the transporter our rally exbert knows dunko and said he is a true exbert...in general im not too bad with my motorsport but i was stuffed when it came to rally and he walked me through all the info...and he knew nearly all the team who was working on the cars too...