While his main rival says the pressure is on him, Australian Rally Championship leader, Harry Bates, doesn’t quite see it that way as he prepares for Lightforce Rally SA next weekend.
Harry Bates heads to Rally SA leading the Australian Rally Championship.Speaking to RallySport Magazine today, Bates says Simon Evans’ comments don’t bother him, and he’ll just take each stage as it comes.
“To be honest, I don’t feel like I have anything to lose this year, as it’s my first year doing the whole championship,” Bates said.
“As soon as we finished Queensland in the championship lead, I knew that Rally SA was going to be all about getting as many points as possible, as it’s the event in the championship that suits our car the least.
“We’re quite aware that the top speed of our Super 2000 Corolla will be about 30km/h less than some of rivals in Subarus, so we’ll be at a disadvantage on some stages.”
The Canberran made his debut in the S2000 Corolla on last year’s Rally SA, and it’s an event that he believes he is well prepared for, given he’s been able to watch in-car footage from 2015.
“I have pretty relevant onboard footage from last year, which is a help, but I remember it all being a bit daunting,” Bates says.
“The South Australian stages have so many big trees close to the road, so you need to take extra care.
“But I enjoyed it very much last year and got a good result, so with the improvements we’ve made since then I’m looking forward to it immensely.”
The long-range weather forecast for the event is looking promising, and while he’d prefer a dry rally, Bates is happy either way.
“I haven’t had as much practice in the wet as the others. But looking ahead to Rally Australia, there’s a huge potential for it to be wet, so I can’t be knocking back chances of driving in those conditions,” he said.
The Bates / McCarthy Corolla will appear in South Australia in the same specification as it did in Queensland, with a pre-event test next week scheduled to finalise the car’s set-up prior to the rally.
- Peter Whitten
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