MOTORSPORT: Win one, lose one for Bates clan

It was one terrific win and one big loss for rallying ‘royalty’, Canberra’s Bates family, at the weekend.

Harry Bates, 22-year-old son of four-time national champion Neal, won the opening round of the Australian Rally Championship at Ballarat in Victoria. However, his younger brother, Lewis, making his ARC debut, saw the Toyota Corolla Sportivo in which Harry too began his ARC driving career in 2015, go up in flames.

Lewis slid off the course on just the second stage, ‘beached’ the car on a dirt mound and, in his efforts to get it out, heat from the exhaust ignited undergrowth and the car was destroyed by the fire.

That was only one of many dramas in the heat and dust at the revived Victorian round, which took the ARC back to gold mining city Ballarat and its northern surrounds for the first time in almost half a century, with the event aptly called the Eureka Rally.

Two leading competitors had changes of cars just hours before it got underway.

Triple champion Eli Evans’ new MINI AP4 didn’t make it in time, so he switched to the Peugeot 208 Maxi driven last year by Mark Pedder. That was the car Ballarat local Aaron Windus was to have driven in what was already a late deal. Once Evans opted for the Peugeot, Windus switched to a spare 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX.

Sydney’s reigning national champion Molly Taylor’s new Production Rally Class (PRC) Subaru Impreza WRX STI required a gearbox change in the middle of heat one on Saturday, costing her a two-minute penalty when the Les Walkden Rallying crew were, understandably, 24 minutes over the 30 minutes allowed.

Taylor had already lost time behind West Australian Brad Markovic in another Subaru and had stopped for her and co-driver Bill Hayes to check when the troublesome front differential started causing bad vibrations. She wound up almost five minutes down, in seventh place, on first-heat victor Harry Bates.

Bates and co-driver John McCarthy, in the Super 2000 Toyota Corolla first campaigned by Neal Bates in the 2008 ARC, had snatched the win on Saturday’s last stage after mechanical problems for earlier leader Nathan Quinn of Coffs Harbour in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.

Windus was third in that first heat, ahead of Evans, who had electrical gremlins late in that day’s competition.

However, Sunday was a much better day for Evans as he and co-driver Glen Weston narrowly took the second heat ahead of Quinn, with Bates third and Taylor fourth – less than 50sec behind the winner this time.

Evans won the most stages for the weekend, earning him a bonus point on top of his third place overall for the round, behind Bates and Quinn.

Also impressive at Ballarat was Victorian Brendan Reeves, driving a Subaru (but only in the state championship) with Ben Searcy alongside him as his usual co-driver (his sister Rhianon Gelsomino, is competing in the USA).

Reeves had the luxury of starting behind the ARC field, when the course was well swept. Although forced out late in heat one when a rear brake line wore on the wheel, Reeves was often quicker than the leading ARC cars and won the second heat of the state series.

The next of the five rounds in the ARC is Western Australia’s Forest Rally in that state’s south-west on April 21-23.

Little-known Aussie’s Sebring podium
There was little joy for big-name drivers Shane Van Gisbergen and Ryan Briscoe in the second of America’s great annual sports car enduros at the weekend, the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Supercars champion Van Gisbergen’s Mercedes AMG was out in the fifth hour with a broken steering, while Briscoe’s Ford GT lost out on a podium in the GTLM class on the last lap.

However, there was joy for American-based expatriate Queensland businessman and owner-driver Kenny Habul, whose Mercedes AMG snatched third place in the GT Daytona (GTD) class thanks to the brilliance of French driver Tristan Vautier.

Another Merc AMG, run by Riley Motorsports, won that class, giving the three-pointed star brand its first triumph at Sebring (a 6km, 17-turn airport circuit in Florida) in 60 years.

Vautier had qualified Habul’s car fastest in GTD and in the race overcame the mistakes and drive-through penalty incurred by American co-driver Boris Said to gain two late places. The last of these, on the final lap, was from an Audi R8 driven by Chris Mies, the German who has twice won the Bathurst 12-Hour and been an Australian GT champion.

The Habul Merc completed 324 laps, one less than the similar class-winning car in which Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen was the lead driver, to finish 18th outright in the field of 46.

The Ford that former Sydneysider Briscoe shared with New Zealander Scott Dixon and Brit Richard Westbrook wound up fourth in GTLM, and 10th outright, after Westbrook spun as a result of contact on its 334th and last lap.

The three Chip Ganassi Fords looked poised for success for much of the race, but arch-rival Corvette Racing snatched victory for the third year in a row (and the 11th time since 2002) courtesy of Spaniard Antonio Garcia’s strong final stint in the C7R.

The Corvette finished seventh outright, 14 laps down on the 6.2-litre naturally-aspirated V8 Daytona prototype Cadillac that won, with two others giving that brand a clean sweep of the outright podium.

One of Garcia’s co-drivers was Jan Magnussen, father of Kevin who will race for American Formula 1 team Haas in next weekend’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

One of the new mid-engined Porsche 911 RSRs was consistently quickest in GTLM but cruelled by a puncture and then a penalty for running over a tyre hose.

One of the Fords, in which Sebastien Bourdais and Joey Hand were drivers, claimed second in the class, within 5sec of the Corvette and ahead of a Ferrari 488 in which Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander drove.

Briscoe said it was “pretty disappointing” to miss out on the podium after having the GTLM pole position and charging through the field after having to start from the rear of the field when there was difficulty firing the car up.

More disappointing was Van Gisbergen’s first race at Sebring, with the steering breaking in his Mercedes AMG when one of his American co-drivers, Cooper MacNeil, was at the wheel.

They had qualified eighth in class but were out after 132 laps and were classified 44th.

It was The Giz’s second DNF in Florida this year after misfortune in the Rolex 24 in January.

The Cadillac that won outright at the weekend was driven by American brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and British rookie Alex Lynn.

The Taylors won this year’s Rolex 24 too, with retired NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon and Cadillac project manager Max Angelleli that time on the debut of the latest Daytona prototypes.

Their Sebring success came 21 years after their father Wayne won the half-day classic as a driver. He is now the victorious team owner, with the other Cadillacs that completed the clean sweep – one on the same 348 laps, the other two laps down – entered by the Action Express team.

The Taylor brothers now have 16 major US racing wins.

NASCAR drought over for Chevrolet, Ryan Newman and Childress Racing
Chevrolet, traditionally the dominant make in NASCAR, has notched its first victory in what is now the Monster Cup at the fourth round at Phoenix International Raceway.

Ryan Newman gambled by not making a late stop for a tyre change to go from seventh into the lead and held on over the final two laps to end his 127-race winless streak and a 112-race victory drought for Richard Childress Racing.

Kyle Larson in another Chevrolet entered by Chip Ganassi Racing was second for the third straight race and has taken a six-point series lead (184 versus 178), ahead of Penske Ford driver Brad Keselowski, winner of the second round at Atlanta and fifth at Phoenix.

Kyle Busch, leader for most of the final stage, was third in the sweltering Phoenix race in which blown tyres were common.

Larson, Busch and many other drivers pitted when Joey Logano's Penske Ford blew a right tyre and slammed into the wall six laps from the finish.

It was the second week Logano’s woes have foiled Busch. Last week Logano knocked the 2015 series champion into the wall at Las Vegas, prompting Busch to punch him.

Martin Truex Junior won for Toyota at Las Vegas after Ford’s victories in the first two rounds, with Kurt Busch – older brother of Kyle and the 2004 Cup champion – triumphant in the season-opening Daytona 500 for Stewart-Haas Racing in its first outing for the Blue Oval after its switch from Chevrolet.

The 36-round series now travels further west to Auto Club Speedway at Fontana, California.