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They headed a Skoda Fabia one-two-three result at the end of the day in Round 3 of the Bosch Motorsport Australian Rally Championship. Eddie Maguire and Zak Brakey were second 58.9s behind and 1:09.9 ahead of Steve Maguire and Ben Searcy.
While the Skoda trio enjoyed a memorable day in forests around Gympie, it was a bad day for the Toyota crews.
Both Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia entries were casualties before half distance. Current ARC leaders Harry Bates and Coral Taylor crashed 2.2km into the first stage, before their teammates Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin had a bigger one with a rollover on the fourth stage.
On the same stage, Luke Anear and Malcolm Read who are in Lewis Bates’ 2022 championship winning Toyota Yaris AP4 and as high as seventh earlier, were out 3mins in with a blown clutch.
Production Cup front runners finished fourth and fifth with Clayton Hoy and Andrew Bennet (Mitsubishi Evo 6) and Molly Taylor and Andy Sarandis (Subaru Impreza WRX STi). Hoy and Bennet topped the Queensland Rally Championship component while Taylor and Sarandis were fourth outright on SS8.
Next were brothers Jamie and Brad Luff (Toyota GR Yaris) ahead of Ryan Williams and Brad Jones (WRX) who snatched seventh from Peter Rullo and James Marquet (Hyundai i20) on the last stage.
Then followed the WRX crews of Bodie Reading and Mark Young (WRX) ahead of locals Josh Wiedman and Nick Reid.
Ryan Smart and Holly Kilbride (Datsun Stanza) finished behind Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell (Peugeot 208) to head the 2WD Classic Cup. ARC Junior Cup winners were Mitch Garrad and Taylah Murphy ((Subaru RS) who were 14th behind Glenn Brinkman and Jaclyn Hughes (Evo 9). Placed 21st Justin Northage and Scott Muhling (Lotus Exige) had top spot in the ARC 2WD Cup.
The Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland resumes tomorrow with Heat 2 to start from 8:55am AEST.
