Harry Bates and Coral Taylor have claimed Heat 1 of Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland after an extremely chaotic opening day of the EROAD Australian Rally Championship’s (ARC) third round of the season.
The reigning champions were highly consistent across the Heat’s eight stages, eventually coming away with a thrilling three-second victory over current championship leaders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard, while Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney made up the top three for the day a further two and a half minutes behind.
“A tough but rewarding day at the office,” commented Paddon. “Today we finished in P2, just three-seconds shy of Harry Bates in an enjoyable battle. Unfortunately, a couple of small issues in the morning loop cost us a little time, and despite three stage wins this afternoon, just fell short.
“Still strong points for the championship when some fellow rivals had a tough day. Well done to Harry for the great drive! Tomorrow, we start from scratch, but some tricky stages lay ahead.”
Finishing the day in fourth place were Clayton Hoy and Erin Kelly, with the Mitsubishi Evo 6 pilots also claiming WOLF Production Cup honours in the process. Rounding out the top five were ARC debutants Patrick O’Brien and Shane Farrell in their Ford Fiesta R5.
With 23 crews entered in the Queensland-based event, in what was the 350th round of the championship, right from the get-go, the morning was dominated by constant drama and high attrition from the opening stage.
IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing’s Peter Rullo and Ben Searcy were the first to go, after the West Australians ended up on their roof following a big rollover on stage one – Stuart Reid and Bella Haggerty the next to crash out just a couple of kilometres down the road.
The big news story of the morning, though, was on the very next stage when genuine title contenders Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall had a big rollover themselves – the pair’s Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 was unable to be retrieved, thus ending their day prematurely.
On stage three, it was the Toyota GR Yaris of Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin that suffered a major issue – the Toyota Gazoo Racing Rally of Canberra winners having a soft rollover, but one that was big enough to prevent them from making the morning’s fourth stage.
By the time crews arrived at Galvaniize Insurance Rally Central for the midday service, a number of other crews had joined the growing casualty list, including two-time WOLF Production Cup champion Bodie Reading and co-driver Brad Jones in their Subaru WRX STI, as well as Troy Dowel and Mitch Garrad.
At the front of the field, the leading GR Yaris Rally2 of Harry and Taylor went into service with a 10-second lead, having won three consecutive stages after Paddon and Kennard guided their Hyundai i20N to victory on the day’s opening stage.
The Kiwi reduced the Toyota’s lead to five seconds after winning the afternoon’s first two stages, before Harry pushed it back out by a second on the penultimate stage and held on to win the Heat after Paddon won the final stage by a couple of seconds.
Finishing sixth for the day were Subaru WRX Challenge winners Toby Price and Holly Kilbride, the pair finishing 17 seconds ahead of ARC Junior Cup winners Jackson and Damien Long, while Jaidyn and Lucy Gluskie finished eighth for the heat.
Making up the final places in the top 10 were Glenn Brinkman and Scott Beckwith in the Subaru WRX, and Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin.
The remaining Cup winners for the Heat were Shane and Sylvie Garner, who took out the 4WD Classic Cup, and the Citroën DS3 of Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell, who won the 2WD Cup.
Awaiting crews for Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland Heat 2 are a further 87 competitive kilometres spread across six stages, with the action to get underway from 8:55am.
Following Saturday night’s Bosch Motorsport Ballot, Harry and Taylor will lead the way ahead of Lewis and McLoughlin in second, while Paddon and Kennard will start the day third on the road.
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