Neal Bates struck a blow for the home team as preparations began yesterday for the return of world championship rallying to Australia.
The four-time national champion set the fastest time during a production-class test run before Repco Rally Australia, which starts on the New South Wales north coast on Thursday night.
Speeding along a dusty forest road south of Murwillumbah at up to 180km/h, Bates was quickly into stride in the Toyota Corolla developed to take him and Simon Evans to back-to-back Australian championships.
Bates clocked 1min 49.1sec, comfortably ahead of Norwegian Evyind Brynildsen in a Mitsubishi Lancer at 1:50.17. Australia’s Eli Evans was third at 1:50.8 in his Subaru Impreza.
“That looks pretty promising,” Bates said. “I’m very happy to have a few runs through the stage and to have the car running well.”
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