Bates aiming to fire back in Queensland
Former Australian rally champion Lewis Bates has been in a slump and needs to fire back at this weekend’s Rally Queensland.
He was slow at his home event in Canberra at the start of season 2024, never fired at the World Rally Championship in Portugal, and was outpaced in Perth through the second event of the Australian championship.
While he has been struggling, his older brother Harry has been winning with a new Rally2 version of the Toyota Yaris and comeback contender Scott Pedder has also been quicker in a Skoda Fabia.
But the slide is about to end, Bates told Auto Action, in Rally Queensland.
“It’s not like I’ve forgotten how to drive,” he said.
“We’re still second in the championship. It’s not ideal, but these things happen.”
There will be no excuses in the sunshine state, as the youngest member of the Bates rally dynasty will have his all-new Toyota Yaris Rally2 and he is fully recovered from the gastric bug that hit his whole crew in Portugal.
“Our plan is to go to Queensland and win. Score maximum points on both days and close up the championship.
“Last year in Queensland, on the Sunday, was the first proper time we really took it to Harry and challenged him for the heat win. We had a pretty close battle and in the end it was only 10 seconds between us.
“They are some of my favourite roads. I love them because they are rough and challenging.”
As he looks forward, the youngest Bates is also prepared to look back.
“I’m not really sure what happened at the season opener in Canberra. I felt like I was driving well but the times weren’t there.
“That was a bit frustrating for me. It wasn’t a bad result – we were still second.
“In Perth, I feel like I struggled on day one when I was opening the road after Harry had problems. On Sunday I think I drove really well.
“For all of Saturday it felt like the car was sitting on top of the road and I couldn’t get it to dig in. After changes on Saturday night I definitely got the feeling back.”
Portugal was a complete disaster, despite getting his first start in a Rally2 Yaris, as the crew had a diabolical gut bug and were sidelined by a mechanical fault on the first day.
“The result wasn’t what we wanted – at all. Nothing went our way that week.
“I’ve never been that sick in my life. I would take Covid over that. I lost 3.5 kilos in 24 hours,” Bates said.
“I wanted to prove myself against the best in the world and didn’t do that at all. The pace side of things was extremely frustrating for me.”
But he said it was still worth doing.
“The roads are amazing. I would say 80 per cent of it I loved.
“It definitely wasn’t a mistake to do it. I’d love to go again.”
And now Queensland.
“We’re confident,” Bates said.
“I’ve had plenty of kilometres in the Rally2 car now and we know it’s faster. We’re still well in the fight.”
Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography
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