Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin win Rally Tasmania epic

Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin have secured their first EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) victory in more than a year after taking out top honours in Subaru Wilderness Rally Tasmania.

The deserving victory saw the pair stand on the top step of the ARC podium for the first time since the season-opening Rally of Canberra last year, which skyrocketed the pair to the top of the ARC standings in the process.

Behind the wheel of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia GR Yaris Rally2, Bates and McLoughlin ended up claiming a 13-second victory after a hard-fought battle with eventual runners-up Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall in the Pedders Rally Team protected by Famous Insurance Skoda Fabia Rally2.

Rounding out the outright podium for the first time in his career was Jackson Long, with the rising star comfortably finishing third on board his Pedders Rally Team protected by Famous Insurance Skoda Fabia R5 alongside father Damien Long in the co-driver seat – the result seeing Damien earn his first ARC podium since 1998.

In what proved to be one of the events of the ages, the #4 GR Yaris Rally2 of Bates and McLoughlin went into Sunday’s competition with a slender one-second lead over Pedder and Macneall after a dramatic opening day of competition which saw their Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia teammates Harry Bates and Coral Taylor withdraw due to an event-ending crash on the final stage.

Lewis and McLoughlin got off to a dream start to Sunday’s action with four consecutive stage wins to extend their lead out to almost 16 seconds – the highest of the weekend – however Pedder and Macneall fought back with two wins of their own.

Having reduced the deficit to nine seconds ahead of the final two stages of the event, Pedder and Macneall were unable to continue their charge as Lewis and McLoughlin responded with a two-and-a-half-second win to extend the buffer back out to 10 seconds before capping the weekend off with the Power Stage victory and the extra bonus points – taking their tally of Power Stage wins to six for the year.

Finishing fourth outright for the weekend was the returning Bodie Reading, who also claimed top honours in the WOLF SPORTS Cup alongside his fellow title-winning co-driver from last year, Brad Jones.

The Les Walkden Rallying duo were highly consistent throughout the whole 15-stage event and enjoyed an entertaining battle with current WOLF SPORTS Cup leaders Josh Redhead and Ray Winwood-Smith on Saturday before an incident late in the day put them out of contention.

Although Redhead and Winwood-Smith made an attempt to return on Sunday morning, their efforts were short-lived as their Mitsubishi EVO Lancer was unable to recover fully – eventually forcing them to retire after just one stage.

That left Bodie Reading and Brad Jones on their own for the rest of the rally, as the Tasmanian claimed every single stage in the WOLF SPORTS Cup and comfortably finished more than three minutes ahead of Toby Price and Ben Searcy.

Price and Searcy not only finished the round in fifth place outright and second in the WOLF SPORTS Cup behind Reading and Jones, but they also secured their third consecutive Subaru WRX Challenge victory as a result.

Despite a successful weekend for the pair, it was not all smooth sailing as they suffered a flat tyre on the day’s opening stage that cost them crucial time and gave an opportunity to rivals Riley Walters and Andrew Crowley to move ahead.

And although Walters and Crowley temporarily surpassed them on the very next stage, Price and Searcy went on to finish ahead of them on the remaining six stages to retain their perfect season and finish ahead of them in all three competitions.

Walters didn’t leave the event empty-handed though as he comfortably claimed the ARC Junior Cup having clean-swept every stage of the weekend.

In seventh outright for the event was another Subaru WRX Challenge crew in Jeff David and Grant Geelan, the PowerPlay Next Level Karting pair benefiting from a heartbreaking DNF from Jaidyn Gluskie and Mark Young – who were forced to retire the car after breaking down in transit following the final stage – a suspected blown piston ring causing the engine to seize.

DRC 4×4’s Darren and Michelle Crozier enjoyed their first top 10 finish for the year, with eighth outright on board their Ford Fiesta G4, while Nathan Stokes and Ian Wheeler recorded their second top 10 finish in as many rounds.

Rounding out the top 10 were ARC Classic Cup winners Shane and Sylvie Garner in their popular Racing Dipsy Subaru WRX STI.

The EROAD Australian Rally Championship returns in six weeks’ time for the penultimate round of the season with the Adelaide Hills Rally on 2-4 October.

View the full results via the Subaru Results Hub