Harry Bates and his co-driver, John McCarthy, won the 2020 AMH Automotive Group Rally of the Bay on 4 July. Photos: Peter Norton, Epic Sports Photography.
Canberra’s Harry Bates and his co-driver, John McCarthy, won the 2020 AMH Automotive Group Rally of the Bay on 4 July in a spectatorless event.
Bates and McCarthy beat their closest rivals, his brother Lewis Bates and co-driver Anthony McLoughlin, by a margin of one minute and 20 seconds. Both teams were driving Toyota Yaris AP4’s, with Harry Bates and McCarthy in the car that won them the 2019 Australian Rally Championship.
Harry Bates and John McCarthy finished first, one minute and 20 seconds ahead of Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin. Photo: Peter Norton, Epic Sports Photography.
Harry Bates led from the start, winning every stage. Speaking after the final stage, he said he was happy to have won the event but that it was a tough day.
“It’s a really challenging road, even in the day, but at night it was even more challenging,” he said of the final stage, the River Road.
Adrian Stratford and Kain Manning getting sideways in their Ford Fiesta on the way to a 13th-place finish. Photo: Peter Norton, Epic Sports Photography.
Lewis Bates said he was happy to be back behind the wheel. “It’s good to be back in the car,” he said. “It’s been nine months since we’ve done a rally. We’ve got a bit of homework to do to catch Harry, but we’ve had a solid day and we’re happy with second.”
Victorians Darren Windus and Joe Brick finished in third place in their Subaru WRX STI.
First-time entry, 16-year-old Taylor Gill, and his co-driver, Peter Harris, finished in 12th position in their Subaru WRX, while 14 drivers retired from the race from either mechanical problems or from crashing.
The next round of the MTA NSW Rally Championship is the Caves Classic Rally on 5 September in the Oberon district.
The full list of results from the past weekend can be seen on the AMH Automotive Group Rally of the Bay results page.
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