Following an interrupted year behind the wheel, Troy Dowel has confirmed his intentions to return to the EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) in 2026 for a full campaign.
Once again locked in to run with Neal Bates Motorsport in his Toyota GR Yaris AP4, Dowel will be looking to gain some consistency after continuing his road to recovery in 2025.
Dowel has faced lots of adversity during his early adulthood having endured a battle against leukaemia – however, following a successful treatment plan and a full bone marrow transplant in 2024, Dowel was able to make it back to the ARC and get back to competing.
This year saw the Victorian attend five rounds, with his best result being a sixth place finish at The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally, as well as a pair of seventh place finishes in Western Australia and South Australia.
Despite being able to make almost every round after getting over a major hurdle in his life, the 25-year-old still faces a long road ahead with the focus now turned on his fitness.
“The main plan for me is to do more ARC in 2026 and try to get back to my best,” Dowel said.
“To do that though, the focus will be about improving my physical fitness so I am able to drive at my peak for longer, as this is where I have been struggling the most.
“There have been multiple times throughout the year where I have not felt 100 per cent so I’ve had to back off a little bit midway through the stage, which has been frustrating.
“I know I am capable of more, so my focus during the off-season is to continue improving my fitness so I can handle the requirements of rallies. While these endurance-event days are not very taxing physically, they are quite long and can still be mentally intense.
“The biggest thing I am hoping for is to have a run of no interruptions. This year I got quite sick a few times and really struggled to recover, which prevented me from doing proper preparation.
“For example, in the lead-up to Tasmania I got really sick for about four weeks and was almost not going to attend, but on the Monday, I felt better and was able to make it down, but still couldn’t go 100 per cent.
“With all that, there have been times where I’ve struggled with my fitness. I think that’s slowly improving with every month and I am hopeful I get a bit better by next year.”
From a driving perspective, Dowel is starting to get faster and more consistent.
His development reached a new phase this year when he replaced veteran co-driver Bernie Webb with rising star Mitch Garrard.
And while he only completed two rallies with Garrard before reverting back to Webb for the second half of the year, it was still beneficial to Dowel’s development having a new face calling the notes.
Likely to drive with Webb next year, Dowel was looking forward to having some consistency with the same co-driver and same car.
“It was nice having Mitch for the first two rounds of my 2025 campaign and good to experience working with someone new,” Dowel explained.
“However at this stage in my career and with everything going on, I just felt more comfortable with Bernie by my side and we are likely to continue that relationship next year.
“As for the Toyota, I really enjoyed it and working under the Neal Bates Motorsport banner. I feel I am slowly getting the hang of how you’re supposed to drive it – especially as I have driven a lot of cars in my time where they’ve all been fairly different from one another.
“It’s also great to be able to work closely with Harry and Lewis Bates as I am able to feed off them and get good advice during service breaks, which is extremely beneficial.
“I am really looking forward to getting more seat time in the Yaris and improving as the year goes on.”
The 2026 EROAD Australian Rally Championship season begins with the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland on 17-19 April.
