The Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia Yaris Rally 2 team finished the day 24.8s ahead of teammates Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin with another 35.2s to third placed Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney (Hyundai i20).

However it was Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall (Skoda Fabia) who were the pacesetters from the start. After six stages, they had a 5.4s lead. But late in SS7, radiator damage brought about the end of their day.

The Buckby Motors Rally Tasmania attracted 50 entries, which made it one of the most competitive events of the 2024 season. Four teams entered the final ARC round with a chance to secure the championship, separated by 108 points.

Pedder and Macneall opened strongly, with victory on the first two stages before Bates and Taylor won SS3 and SS4.

After the morning stages, the top five were separated by 17s. In SS5. Pedder came out on top, followed by the Bates brothers, Rullo and Eddie Maguire and Zak Brakey (Slodia).

“The stages were pretty much what we expected, reasonably well swept and even though there’s been a bit of rain around, there really wasn’t much rain on the surface so yeah it was all very nice and to be leaders at the end of day one is nice,” Bates said.

“Today we pretty much stuck to our plan, and I mean it was really nice. We just focused on ourselves, made sure we were always in a nice rhythm, didn’t push beyond our limits and its landed us with a nice little lead, so yeah very happy.”

Clayton Hoy and Erin Kelly (Mitsubishi Evo 6) dominated the MainFix Production Cup through all stages except SS8 where they briefly faltered after a suspected puncture.

They finished eighth overall behind Power Stage SS9 winners Richie Dalton/Mac Keirans (Yaris), Steve Maguire/Ben Searcy (Skoda) and Jamie and Brad Luff. Yaris). Rullo and Glenney won Power Stage SS10.

Rally Tasmania will continue through to Sunday in the forests of Burnie, with another six stages. The first stage will begin just after 8am AEST.