Two-time Harry Bates will contest the 2024 Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship alongside five-time champion co-driver Coral Taylor.
Speaking with Greg Rust on a Motorsport Brief edition of Rusty’s Garage, Harry Bates revealed that Taylor will again navigate for him. There was also chat about the potential to upgrade to a new car.
“She is going around again, vying for a sixth title, which will be pretty cool,” Harry Bates confirmed.
“We’re in talks about whether we will be in the Toyota Yaris GR AP4 next year or in new cars. Toyota globally have the Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2 and it is our intention to get into those at some point, but we have no plans yet.
“My number one mechanic will still be Sam [Elliot], who has been the number one mechanic for my car since 2016, so he is another guy I have a longstanding partnership with, and we have now collected two championships together which is a cool thing.”
This year the Bates/Taylor combination took out their first title together after a tense Rally of Canberra, the final round of the 2023 ARC. It came down to the EROAD Power Stage to determine which they won and took the championship by just one point over their Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia teammates (and Harry’s brother) Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin.
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“For Coral and I to be standing there together waiting in anticipation for that moment – we were both overcome with slightly different emotions,” Bates explained.
“For me, it was probably a mixture of relief and elation that we had done it. For her, it was emotion straight away. She has obviously been around the sport for a long time and probably never thought that she would be in the position again to win an ARC.
“Her last win came in 2008 with my dad [Neal] and here she is, 15 years later, achieving her fifth ARC championship – it’s pretty staggering.
“She is 62 years old, yet still so capable in the car, perfect on the notes, such a top co-driver, and a great friend to have in the car.”
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