Vale: Wayne Bell, 1952-2025
- 6th February 2025, 8:39pm
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by Peter Whitten
- Photos by Stuart Bowes, RSM archives
Australian rallying is mourning the loss of Wayne Bell, the man who started Hyundai’s world rallying program.
The winner of four Australian Rally Championship rounds, Bell is widely regarded as the best driver never to win the national championship, and was inducted into the Australian Rally Hall of Fame in 2019.
Born on March 14, 1952, Wayne Bell started his rallying in a Mitsubishi Galant in 1974, but quickly shot to stardom when he joined the much-publicised Marlboro Holden Dealer Team in 1977.
With George Shepheard alongside, Bell would battle hard against the works Datsuns and Fords, taking third place in the 1978 Southern Cross and Castrol International rallies.
He was a part of the dominant Holden team that finished 1-2-3 in the 1979 Repco Reliability Trial, but after the team was disbanded, he drove Geminis, Commodores and a Toyota Corolla before moving into the 4WD era in 1987.
He purchased Andrew Murfet’s Mazda 323 4WD and, with the support of long-time sponsor Lovells Springs, Bell won on the first time out in the car at the Australian Championship round in South Australia.
Second in the ARC in 1987 had him full of confidence for the 1988 season, but despite winning in Western Australia, his season was full of DNFs and he finished a distant fourth.
The Mazda was his car of choice for the Rally Australia trial event in 1988, and in the first WRC year in 1989, where he finished a strong eighth outright.
The Sydneysider was then approached by Hyundai Australia to build a pair of front-wheel drive Lantras. His association was successful from the start and began a 10-year partnership between Bell and the Korean make.
“The Lantra was slow, but handled like a rear-wheel drive car and was fun to drive. Basically, the plan was to never lift off,” Bell said on his Hall of Fame induction.
Together with co-driver Dave Boddy, he was responsible for Hyundai’s first win in the World Rally Championship, claiming the Group N2 category at Rally Australia in 1992.
He would drive for Hyundai in New Zealand, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Portugal, Greece, Finland, Italy and Great Britain in a superb career that put Hyundai on the motorsport map.
“I have been credited with being instrumental with Hyundai’s involvement in the sport, and at one time I was better known in Korea than Australia!” he once said.
A columnist for Australian Rallysport News for some years, he retired from full-time rallying at the conclusion of the 1998 season.
The last ‘competitive’ outing for Bell was when he drove his Lovell’s Springs Mazda 323 4WD, meticulously restored by Stuart Bowes, as a course car on the 2022 Barossa Valley.
Wayne Bell had lived north of Newcastle for some years and was recovering in hospital after an operation on Monday.
Sadly, his condition deteriorated and he passed away on Thursday morning, February 6. He was 73.
RallySport Magazine passes its deepest sympathies to his wife of 46 years, Ricki, and his children, Patrick and Beckie.
Rest in peace, mate.
Listen to our DustTrails Podcast episodes with Wayne Bell
