After 14 stages of Heat 1 in the PowerPlay Adelaide Hills Rally, Harry Bates and Coral Taylor led by 16.8s over Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia team-mates Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin.
Third behind the Toyota GR Yaris AP4 pair were Eddie Maguire and Zak Brakey in their Skoda Fabia R5 a further 1:05.1 away.
The fifth round of the Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship opened on Friday night at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park at The Bend with two special stages around the GT layout
Harry Bates took out both stages for a 1.5s lead over his brother as Maguire was third, half that time behind. Lewis Bates struck back with wins on Stages 3 and 4 before Harry Bates put together seven stage wins in a row.
Harry Bates won Stages 12 and 13 before Luke Anear and Malcolm Read (Ford Fiesta Mk2) took out the last. Throughout the day, Maguire was consistently in the top three before a drama on Stage 13 where he received a 30-second penalty for a wrong turn that had him in the wrong lane at the end.
“I think our little moment this morning, where we had a slight overshoot probably helped us,” Harry Bates said.
“We were struggling to get a feeling for the brakes and there’s so many high-speed sections where you have to brake really heavily into a tight corner, so to go over the limit actually helped us find the limit and then settle into a rhythm from there.”
Troy Dowel and Bernie Webb (Fiesta Rally 2) were fourth after they had a three-way battle with Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney (Hyundai i20 Rally 2) and the returning Molly Taylor and Andy Sarandis (Subaru WRX STi) who led the White Wolf Constructions Production Cup.
Ninth was Anear ahead of the second Hyundai i20 in the hands of Peter Rullo and James Marquet. Declan Madigan and Stephen Kelly (Subaru) blew a turbo but rejoined later while Caolmhin MacGhirr and Noah Humble (Subaru) crash out with both okay.
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