2006 Subaru Rally of Canberra

[MT]

Bates makes dream start to 2006 title race

Home town hero Neal Bates has won Canberra's Capital Rally, the first round of the Australian Rally Championship. The Toyota Team Racing (TTR) boss took an overnight lead of 36.9sec into today's stages and was never headed, finishing 1min 12.8sec ahead of Mitsubishi's Scott Pedder. TTR's Simon Evans was third, 10.5 secs behind Pedder.

For triple Australian rally champion Bates, it was his first ARC round win since 2001, whilst team mate Simon Evans also showed plenty of speed during the weekend, despite being plagued by electrical problems. Evans won four of the last six stages of the rally but ultimately could not recover from a 1min 20 penalty for being late out of service while his crew tried to fix the problems on Saturday.

Today's result sees Toyota sitting first and second in the ARC drivers' championship, with Bates on 36 points ahead of Evans on 32 points.

Subaru's Dean Herridge, who competed in the parallel Rally of Canberra event but was eligible for ARC points, lies third in the championship with 30 points ahead of Mitsubishi's Scott Pedder on 26 points.

Bates was ecstatic with his dream start to the season.

"It doesn't get better than that. To be first and second in the championship was our main aim, so we couldn't be happier.

Results:

Provisional Results- Subaru Capital Rally- Overall

N. Bates/C.Taylor (Toyota Corolla Sportivo) 2:23:41:1

S.Pedder/ G.Weston (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) +1:12:8

S.Evans/ S. Evans (Toyota Corolla Sportivo) +1:23:3

M.Lintott/ T. Jackson (Toyota Corolla Sportivo) +4:24:7

W.Orders/T. Feaver (Subaru Impreza WRX) +7:21:5

Rally Sport Magazine

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go the sportivo's!!!!!!!! anyone catch any of the action in the forest over the weekend?

[Hsien]

ha........but the TTR Stivo is way different from the ones that we can buy..... :(

[MT]

yeah i know.... even if its only an ascent in real life lol