Harry Bates and Coral Taylor win Rally Queensland following dominant Heat 2 victory

Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia’s Harry Bates and Coral Taylor officially kicked off their 2026 campaign with an outright victory on Sunday after claiming Heat 2 of Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland.

The pair picked up where they left off from Saturday to win six of Sunday’s seven stages and charge out to a 17-second Heat win over Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, while Bates and Taylor’s Toyota teammates Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin finished the day in third place.

Sunday proved an almost faultless performance from Harry and Taylor, who, despite starting third on the road, showed no signs of issues in the dust as they won all four of the morning stages to go into the midday service with a 21-second lead over Pedders Racing Team, protected by Famous Insurance’s Pedder and Macneall.

While Pedder and Macneall bounced back nicely straight after the break to reduce the gap to just over 15 seconds, Harry and Taylor found another gear and won the final two stages, including the Power Stage.

View full results via the Subaru Results Hub.

With all three crews finishing in the same positions on Saturday, they ultimately ended up on the outright podium in an unchanged order – with Harry and Taylor also enjoying maximum bonus points after winning the Power Stage on Sunday afternoon .

“It was a really strong start to the season — two heat wins, a Power Stage win, and the Power Stage win. We felt comfortable in the car from the beginning, and especially today we were able to push on and build a solid lead this morning, which was great. So yeah, very happy,” Harry said.

“It was a really strong start to the season – two heat wins and one Power Stage win. We felt comfortable in the car from the beginning, and especially today we were able to push on and build a solid lead this morning, which was great. So yeah, very happy.

“It’s definitely exciting to get that first win on the board for the year and now focus on the rest of the season. If you look at the ARC, it’s so important to keep collecting points along the way, and we’ve taken almost maximum points this weekend. That’s a great feeling to start the season, and our pace looks promising for what’s ahead.

“It’s a good confidence boost for next week. I’m heading to Portugal next week for a WRC round, then coming straight back for Rally WA – so three rallies in five weeks, which is pretty cool.”

In fourth for the day was Ezi Up’s Troy Dowel and Bernie Webb, who also won the East Coast Cup for both the Heat and the weekend overall as a result of their performance.

The duo once again finished ahead of the sixth placed Josh Redhead and Ray Winwood-Smith in the Heat, who guided their Mitsubishi EVO5 to fifth for the Heat and top honours in the Wolf Sport Cup, who like Dowel, earned them the overall weekend victory in the class.

Josh Wiedman and Ryan Preston bounced back from a difficult Saturday to finish sixth on Sunday and pick up the Heat 2 Junior Cup win as a result, with Subaru WRX Challenge winners Toby Price and Ben Searcy ending the day in seventh.

Finishing eighth for Heat 2 was the second Pedders Racing Team, protected by Famous Insurance entry of Jackson and Damien Long – who produced a decent recovery after suffering diff issues on their Skoda Fabia RS on the penultimate stage.

In ninth for the Heat was ARC debutant Riley Walters and co-driver Andrew Crowley, and although they were unable to win the Heat for Junior Cup, the young New South Welshman enjoyed the overall victory for the class as a result of yesterday’s results.

Rounding out the top 10 for the Heat was Tony Sullens and Julia Barkley in the MRF tyres Peugeot 208.

With round one of the EROAD Australian Rally Championship now complete, all attention turns to Western Australia next month with the ARC Plant Hire Forest Rally on 23-25 May.