Interview: Harry Bates, son of a gun

When you’re the 19-year old son of a multiple Australian Rally Champion and Australian rallying Hall of Fame member, it would be easy to remain in the background and shy away from the sport that your father has been so successful at.

But for Harry Bates, the passion to compete in rallying is growing stronger by the day, and he’s already showing plenty of talent behind the wheel and looks to have a big future ahead of him.

Harry Bates and Coral Taylor finished second in the Narooma Forest Rally last year.Driving a front-wheel drive Toyota Corolla, Harry finished second outright in last year’s Narooma Forest Rally, winning stages outright along the way. It impressed everyone, including his co-driver in the event, Coral Taylor.

Now, after a nine month lay-off, Harry is getting ready for his second season behind the wheel, beginning in the ACT this month.

RallySport Mag’s Peter Whitten asked Harry Bates some of the questions on every rally fan’s mind.

Harry, what events and/or championships does your program entail during 2015?

The current plan is to run three local Canberra rallies over the next three months, including the National Capital Rally in May. The Rallye des Femmes is being put on again by the Brindabella Motorsport Club on March 21, and they’re allowing novice competitors to run as part of that.

The last rally I did was in July last year, so I am looking forward to getting out on to the stages again. After that I’ll fly straight to Rally WA to help out the team and hopefully fit in a bit of spectating, and I’ll help drive back across the Nullarbor for the long trip home!

The Light Car Club of Canberra are running a rallysprint in mid-April, which uses some of the roads that have been used for Rally of Canberra in the past, so I plan to run there. Then we will get the car prepared and hopefully have a good run at Rally of Canberra in mid-May.

That is as far as my plans go at this point. I will have to have a look what is around after Canberra and go from there.

Tell us the history and specifications of the Toyota Corolla you’ll be running.

The car was originally owned by Brian Hilton and built for the Sydney to London Marathon Rally. I bought the car from Luke Page last year. It’s a completely standard Toyota Corolla Sportivo, the only exception being a close-ratio gear set. True to Toyota form, it’s been incredibly reliable so far.

Harry Bates gets some words of advice from his father Neal.Who will be in the co-driver’s seat?

I don’t have that sorted yet. Obviously Coral (Taylor) has co-driven for me a couple of times now. But I’m realistic that her commitments to Dad and their rallying won’t allow her to sit in with me very often.

After the Narooma Forest Rally last year in July, Coral and I conjured up a plan to start going rallying together and have Dad become our chief service crew member, but for some reason he didn’t like that idea very much at all! So I’m definitely looking for someone more permanent to work with.

How much extra pressure (if any) does being Neal Bates’ son put on you?

I bet Max Vatanen gets a similar question every day! I think the only pressure for now comes from myself. I’m usually pretty relaxed, but I’m quite competitive once I’m in a car, so I think I expect more from myself than what others expect of me.

I think rallying is a sport where practice and experience counts for everything, so it becomes less about who you are, and more about what you’ve done.

Was your dad always happy for you to go rallying, or did he try to push you in another sporting direction, knowing how expensive and all-encompassing rallying is?

He never once pushed me away from motorsport, but he certainly never pushed me in to it! As you say, he knows all of the trials and tribulations of the sport, so I think he wanted to be sure that it was what I wanted.

I have always had the opportunity to compete, but before last year, I never took it seriously. It’s like any sport in that you have to really want to do it, given how much of your time and your life it takes up.

My younger brother is a pretty talented soccer player, so Mum and Dad would probably be happy if he kept pursuing his goals in that area rather than moving across to motorsport.    

After just two rallies, Harry Bates has already shown the rallying world he has plenty of natural talent.Obviously with good results in the two rallies you’ve done so far, it must give you the confidence to know that you can do well moving forward?

The two rallies I did last year were back-to-back in June and July. My last result (in the Narooma Forest Rally) was second outright along with a couple of fastest stage times, a result that was pretty exciting at the time and one I’m still pretty happy with.

But then I went away for three months working for Toyota all over the country, which meant no more rallies fitted in for the rest of the year. Two rallies back-to-back and then nine months off isn’t exactly ideal for someone with very little experience.

So the results give me some confidence that I can go out and put down a reasonable stage time, but I am really looking forward to my first rally this year to get back in to it properly.

You’ve have had Coral Taylor co-driving for you in events, and in testing. How much influence has she had on you so far?

She’s been a big influence for sure. I’ve only done one rally with her, but her experience and calm way of doing things gave me a real sense of confidence. Knowing I can focus 100% on my own role as driver throughout a whole rally and commit to everything she is saying during the stages is a pretty nice feeling for someone as inexperienced as I am.

It’s a strange thing though, having her voice come through the intercom calling the notes, a voice I’ve been listening to when watching Dad’s in-car for so many years.

What sort of mechanical knowledge do you have, and have you had much input into the building of your Corolla?

For now, it’s pretty limited. I’m learning every day. I go in to the workshop in my spare time to work on my rally car, as well as help the team out where needed, and I try to pick up on as much I can.

I’ve started to enjoy doing different things on the car, and it’s always motivating working on your own car and trying to make improvements to it that will help results.

People have occasionally asked why I didn’t spend my whole time at the workshop learning these things before now, but at the end of the day, a factory rally team was run out of the workshop, and it wasn’t really a place for an 11 or 12 year old boy to be hanging out after school. So I never really spent time at the workshop learning about cars until I started preparing my own.

You had a successful test session last week. What sort of changes were you able to make to the set-up of the car?

It was my first ever test, so for me, the test was always going to be more about learning how to drive. Having a piece of road to work with for an entire day definitely allowed me to try different things with my driving and take some steps forward in that department.

We made some minor adjustments to the suspension settings. The car is better on initial turn-in now, but it’s still quite lazy in the steering and on direction change because of the standard steering rack. It makes for some entertaining in-car vision because of how much wheel work is required!

Harry and his standard Toyota Corolla will contest this month's Rallye des Femmes.And of course the obvious question …. did your dad drive the car and how did his times compare with yours?

I’m not sure how safe answering this question is… Dad helps me work on the car at the moment! But yes he did have a drive, and at the time I was lapping the test track a little over a second faster than what he did.

What are Harry Bates’ goals for the 2015 season?

To get lots of rallying under my belt and gain as much experience as possible. I look forward to benchmarking myself against different people throughout the year and seeing if I can keep making improvements.

I know that each time I move up a category, from club to state, and from state to national, the competition will also move up a level, so I look forward to those challenges.

I also want to find the time to do some circuit racing and track days. Rallying is and always will be where my heart is, but I enjoy motorsport in any form, so if the chance is there, I’ll try to do a couple of race meetings.

Where would you like to be competing in five years time, and what do you hope to have achieved by then?

I really haven’t thought long term. I’d like to move in to a four-wheel-drive car in a few years time. Aside from that, I haven’t thought about it. I might have to get back to you on that one...

Good luck Harry - Australian rally fans are keen to watch your progression and see you out on the stages!

Author