Hyundai driver Hayden Paddon leads heading to the Gippsland Rally on 256 points over the Bates brothers. Lewis has 221 points while Harry has 192 points.
Lewis won the season-opening Rally of Canberra overall and bagged the most points of anyone after finishing second at the end of Heat 1 and Heat 2.
Since then, Hayden Paddon has largely dominated. Over the six heats to date, he has won four of them to stand atop the pile.
Meanwhile, the Bates brothers have jockeyed for position. Heading to Victoria, it’s an even 3-3 split in the heats.
With Paddon not too far out of their reach, Lewis said it’s too early in the season to decide who gets priority, but that a decision would likely come after Gippsland.
“I think it’s too early at this point to have that discussion,” Lewis told Speedcafe.
“Realistically, we’re only at the halfway point. Maybe after this round let’s reassess and see where things are at.
“But at the moment, I’d say Harry and myself are still well in the championship fight against Hayden.
“Anything can happen, we’ve seen crazy things before, so at this point, it’s just flat out for both Harry and I trying to get the best result we can this weekend.
“As a team, Harry has his strengths, I have my strengths, and collectively if we can just keep putting pressure on Hayden and keep lifting our game then I think we’ve shown at times we can match him or even beat him.
“We can do it, but we need to do it more consistently and that’s what Hayden’s done so well this year. He’s been fast and limited his mistakes. That’s a big focus for us for the second half of the season.”
Lewis labelled his season up and down, not only because he had a rollover at Rally Queensland.
The Toyota GR Yaris driver said he was stoked to win his home rally but that momentum had not fully translated to Western Australia or Queensland.
“It’s something that I’ve been trying to do for six years now,” he said of winning the Rally of Canberra.
“To start the season like that was very good. We didn’t really carry the momentum like we’d hoped into Perth, sort of struggled the whole event there, but still managed to get some consistent points.
“Same again in Queensland. It was a tough event. We obviously had the rollover on, on Saturday, but bounced back on Sunday and got second in the heat and the power stage win. We still scored some decent championship points.
“We’ve had to lift ourselves to try and keep up with him. He’s been setting the pace and he’s obviously an incredible driver and he’s achieved a lot in his career. To have a driver of his caliber over competing in our championship is really cool for us.
Anthony McLoughlin and I are really enjoying the challenge, and I know Harry and Coral [Taylor] are loving it as well.
“We’re at the halfway point of the season and we trail Hayden by 35 points, so we definitely need to find another gear for the second half of the season to try and claw back some points, that’s for sure.
“In saying that, 35 points is not much. It’s 110 points if you have a perfect weekend and we only trail Hayden and John by 35 points. It’s definitely still all to play for.”
The Gippsland Rally officially starts on Friday, August 22 with the downtown rally show from 4pm at the Port of Sale.
Fans will have a chance to meet the drivers and get up close and personal with the rally cars before they set off on Saturday for 10 stages. Competition concludes on Sunday with eight stages.
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