Harry Bates and Coral Taylor have ended the opening day of Buckby Motors Rally Tasmania in top spot, holding a seven-second lead over current EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) leaders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard.
With eight stages making up Saturday’s action in the northern Tasmanian town of Burnie, Bates and Taylor were highly consistent throughout the day as they guided their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 to two stage wins and top-four finishes on every other stage.
Finishing third for the day, a further six seconds behind the Hyundai i20N Rally2 of Paddon and Kennard were the returning Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall in their Škoda Fabia R5, following what was a dramatic morning behind the wheel for the pair.
In what was their first event since Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland, Pedder and Macneall got off to a dream start to the rally with consecutive stage wins in the morning, putting them almost seven seconds ahead of Bates and Taylor.
An unfortunate spin midway through the very next stage saw the pair lose more than 19 seconds to their rivals, however it wasn’t catastrophic as they didn’t lose too much time on the leading Toyota.
Taking out the stage victory was ARC title contender Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin, which brought them to third place just over one second behind Paddon and Kennard, while Harry and Taylor slightly grew their lead over the Kiwi to above five seconds.
That lead was extended out to almost seven seconds at the midday service after the Harry and Taylor duo picked up a win on stage four – their Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia teammates dropping to fourth place after an issue saw them finish stage four almost 25 seconds slower.
Pedder and Macneall bounced back nicely after service to secure their third stage win for the day, their strong performance bridging the gap to the leaders. The pair then went back-to-back again on stage six to go to within 10 seconds of Harry and Taylor.
Paddon and Kennard picked up their first win on the penultimate stage to get the gap between he and the leading Toyota to just over five seconds before Harry and Taylor capped off the day with their second stage win – extending their lead over the championship leaders up to seven and a half seconds.
“Strong day. Day one at Rally Tassie was a really good day for Coral and I in the car,” Harry said.
“The stages ended up in very good condition despite all the rain we had yesterday. In fact, they are in even better condition than last year, so I think the rain was a nice benefit to the stages,” Bates said.
“From the outside, we had a great day with good rhythm throughout the day. We were fast, consistent and made no mistakes, so I’m happy with that.
“We just need to do more of the same tomorrow. So I’ll go home now, get prepped and come out strong tomorrow.”
Finishing the day in fourth place was Lewis and McLoughlin after they struggled to find consistent pace, while Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney rounded out the top five almost two minutes off the leaders.
The returning Richie Dalton and co-driver Mac Kierans finished the day in sixth place, one minute ahead of ARC debutant Emma Gilmour and her ever-experienced co-driver Ben Searcy in their Maximum Motorsport prepared Škoda Fabia R5.
Fellow Škoda pilot Peter Rullo and new co-driver Kelly Thomas were a further 30 seconds off the pace in eighth place and comfortably ahead of WOLF Production Cup leaders Bodie Reading and Brad Jones.
Rounding out the outright top 10 for the day were the ARC 2WD Cup leaders Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell, who edged out Jackson Long and Damien Long by 29 seconds.
The Longs took a little while to get going, but following a close battle in the Subaru WRX Challenge with Glenn Brinkman and Scott Beckwith during the first half of the day, charged away from their rivals.
Shane and Sylvie Garner led the way in the ARC 4WD Classic Cup after their main rivals in Molly Spalding and Matthew Dillon crashed out on the penultimate stage of the day. The pair reported they were okay but unable to continue for the final stage.
In the ARC Junior Cup, Jaidyn Gluskie and Rhys Llewellyn survived the day to finish 17th overall as the youngster looks to finish the year on a high.
View the full results via the Subaru Results Hub.
Only six stages remain in the EROAD Australian Rally Championship 2025 season, with the Buckby Motors Rally Tasmania action to resume tomorrow morning at 8:08am AEDT.
