RALLY driving is a sport of fine margins.
It’s more than just speeding along dirt tracks. It’s a sport that demands precision, skill and strategy.
Spectators at the weekend’s Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally had the chance to experience this as 37 crews raced in Round 4 of the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) and a further 26 competed in the Victorian Rally Championship.
Before the event, a lot of pre-race tweaking and fine-tuning occurs. Teams had the chance to perfect their cars, get a feel for Gippsland’s gravel roads, and polish teamwork last Thursday at two test tracks in Stockdale. The intention behind test days is to make final adjustments, and drivers didn’t hold back around the bends or on the straights, kicking up rocks and dust as they glided around corners.
Few understand the demands of rally driving better than four-time Australian Rally Championship winner Neal Bates, who heads Toyota’s Gazoo Racing Australia team. Mr Bates has been involved in rallying most of his life, joining Toyota in 1989. Now he travels Australia with his professional rally driving sons, Harry and Lewis.
Mr Bates said drivers use the test runs to get a feel for how the car handles the course and terrain. Last Thursday, after Harry completed test runs in a Toyota GR Yaris, a 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged four-wheel-drive Rally2 car, he said the vehicle was handling the fast sections of the track well, but its turning wasn’t up to scratch on challenging tight corners.
Like a sixth sense, drivers understand what is and is not working in the car, and their 10-person crew make corrections.
“You’ve got several ways to adjust that: you can go up in the rear ride height; you can go harder in the rear shock; you can go softer at the front shock, so there’s a lot of adjustments in the cars and a lot of different ways that you can change them to make the driver comfortable,” Mr Bates said.
Adaptability is also essential, as drivers must adjust to evolving track conditions lap after lap. Unlike tarmac, gravel roads change with every run as stones lift and loose debris are sprayed across the track from previous run throughs.
Beyond skill, the will to win fuels the quest for rally-driving glory. The mental game is just as crucial as the physical one. Racing demands laser-like focus, split-second reflexes, and a relentless competitive drive.
“You come to every event to try and win it, but you know that there’s a lot of other people with the same idea. Obviously, that’s what competition is all about,” Mr Bates said.
Mr Bates said his son Harry leads the ARC standings after four rounds alongside co-driver Coral Taylor. The pair cemented their lead over the weekend, winning overall at 1:55:44.7, over two minutes faster than brother Lewis Bates and co-driver Anthony Mcloughlan. Molly Taylor, one of two female drivers, was fourth overall, with co-driver Andy Sarandis in a Subaru WRX STI.
Like last year, Day 1 of the rally was based in Heyfield, and competitors drove through the forests north of Cowwarr to Glenmaggie.
Gippsland Rally Director Andrew Roseman said drivers climbed about 1100 metres above sea level on roads he described as “technical” but “fast and flowing”. Day 2 took the crews from Briagolong to Stockdale on a course characterised by twists and turns.
“The drivers have to have skill for both travelling fast on those sweeping roads up in the hills and then also being able to try and extract as much time out of doing these tight technical roads as well,” Mr Roseman said.
Spectators were out in droves for the rally. The weekend’s proceedings began at the BSR Automotive Rally Show last Friday at the Port of Sale. Hundreds of people, including kids still in their school uniforms, milled about among the impressive rally cars. Spectators had the chance to meet crews before watching them tear through the Gippsland wilderness on Saturday and Sunday.
“The great thing is that spectators can turn up to a forest location – quite surreal and quiet – and the tension builds as the rally cars approach,” Michael Finger, the Marketing and Media Manager for Gippsland Rally, said.
“Each of the cars start the stage at two-minute intervals, so spectators can hear one car at a time come through the forests and come through the intersection at a blinding pace very different to what you would expect any car to be travelling out on a gravel,” he said.
Mr Roseman shared this sentiment.
“The great thing about rally is that the roads and the conditions that you drive and compete with are so variable and challenging compared to circuit racing,” he said.
Doug Lord experienced this difference last week when he drove shot gun with Tom Clarke from White Wolf Racing in a 2018 Ford Fiesta – R5. Mr Lord bought himself the opportunity at a fundraising event for the charity Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia. The proceeds will fund mentoring programs for vulnerable children.
He said he loved every minute of the drive. Mr Lord is a car enthusiast and has driven tarmac circuits before, but he emphasised that nothing compares to the trust co-drivers must have in drivers as they rescind control over the vehicle.
“You’re experiencing for the first time, just going out of control on a dirt road and you don’t have kitty litter or tyres on the side of the road if something goes wrong,” he said.
“It’s a different animal. I’ve got a whole new respect for drivers that do this.”
Rally driving has become a family affair for the Bates’, but cross-border and even international bonds are being formed on the rally circuit.
“The rally community’s a bit like a big family and I think there’s a lot of camaraderie between the teams,” Mr Roseman said.
A moment that speaks to this camaraderie is when up and coming development driver Nao Otake from Japan, competed with Australia’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team at the weekend. Mr Otake is part of an exchange program between Japan Rally Championship (JRC) and ARC, with Toyota Gazoo Racing hosting him and a team of 10 from JRC. In return, Harry Bates and co-driver Coral Taylor will compete in Rally Hokkaido in Hokkaido, Japan, from September 5 to 8.
Mr Otake said he competed in sprint rallies like his father when he was growing up. He said the sport, while famous, is less popular in Japan than it is in Australia. He said many Japanese rally drivers travel here for this reason.
“In Japan, we have a passion to do the rally in Australia because it’s so popular… It’s good to have this kind of exchange program and get the community (experience) with Australian people,” Mr Otake said.
Australia and Japan’s rallying relationship has a long history, beginning in 1957. Mr Otake said working with Neale and Harry Bates is part of continuing Japan and Australia’s great relationship. He was also excited to experience Australia’s roads.
“I’m so happy to drive this kind of Australian road; it’s not the same as Japan. Japan is more narrow and twisty and (has) quite rutted surface, but this is a quite flowing, hard and compact surface so it’s a good opportunity to drive and get the experience.”
Mr Otake finished an impressive seventh overall alongside co-driver Hideki Takeyabu at 2:05:06.6.
Drivers aren’t the only ones reaping the rewards of Gippsland’s impressive landscape. Heyfield was again chosen as the base for The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally this year.
“We understand the impact that we make to the small towns… Our economic surveys show us that we do contribute in a good way to the economy,” Mr Finger said.
“We’re really happy that we have such community involvement and support from local traders: Heyfield Pizza and Takeaway and also Heyfield Bakery are our food providers at the spectator points.”
