A dominant Heat 1 of the Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship went to Harry Bates and Coral Taylor in their Toyota GR Yaris.
They won the eight special stage, incident-filled first leg of the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland by 2:27.9 over Eddie Maguire and Zak Brakey in their newly acquired Skoda Fabia.
Brodie Reading and Mark Young crewed the Production Cup leading Subaru Impreza WRX STi to third.
Bates started off with victory on the first stage and won five more. Second on the Stage 1 were Harry’s brother Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin in their Yaris. They then lost power steering until the service at the lunch break which came after the next three stages.
Stage 2 went to Luke Anear and Malcolm Read before they rolled the Ford Fiesta Mk2 on the next stage. Despite significant body damage, they managed to continue but were ruled out of further stages due to roll cage damage.
Harry Bates finished Stage 2 second and won the next two. After dramas on first stage, Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith (Hyundai i20) came back with a third, a second and an eighth to complete the morning.
Maguire was second at the mid-point ahead of Jamie and Brad Luff (Yaris) despite being slowed on Stage 4, Reading, Peter Rullo/Ben Searcy (i20), Troy Dowel/Bernie Webb in the debut of their Mitsubishi Mirage, and Quinn. Ryan Williams and Brad Jones were running third before two incidents in their WRX.
Dowel was the next one to strike trouble, his car catching fire on Stage 5 with was subsequently downgraded. On Stage 6 Quinn stopped half a kilometre short of the finish, and Luff had a puncture. The next stage saw Steve Maguire and Dale Moscatt (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) go off, so too Daniel Gonzalez and Daymon Nicoli (Skoda) although they were able to continue.
The last three stages of the day went to Harry Bates over Lewis Bates and Eddie Maguire.
Lewis Bates managed to salvage fourth ahead of Rullo, Glenn Brinkman/Steven Richardson (Lancer Evolution IX), Williams, Gandewa Sanders/Rhianon Gelsomino (Fiesta), and Cameron Henry/Erik Johnsson (WRX).
Tenth were 2WD Cup leaders Josh Wiedman/Nick Reid (Fiesta) ahead of Ben and Cathy Haynes (Subaru BRZ).
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