Champion drivers overcome scare to triumph in Gympie rally

Bates and McCarthy scored a relatively comfortable victory over the 29-car Australia Rally Championship field, winning a “clean sweep of stages” to finish more than two minutes ahead of the pack.

Harry Bates (pictured) and John McCarthy were the winners of the Australia Rally Championship racing in the Gympie region over the weekend. (FILE PHOTO).

In-form driving team Harry Bates and John McCarthy made it two straight Australia Rally Championship wins after overcoming a hole in their car’s radiator to triumph in the 2021 Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland, held in the Gympie region over the weekend.

READ MORE: Woman airlifted after rally car smashes into tree

Bates and McCarthy scored a relatively comfortable victory over the 29-car ARC field, winning a “clean sweep of stages” to finish more than two minutes ahead of the pack.

Brothers Lewis and Harry Bates (dark shirt) pictured in 2019. FILE PHOTO

Harry’s brother Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin finished a “well-deserved second”, edging Western Victorian Crane Trucks’ Arron Windus and Daniel Brkic by just 17 seconds in a tight tussle to decide the podium.

The weekend’s racing was not short of incidents, with a woman aged in her 40s airlifted to hospital after a rally car crashed head-on into a tree just after noon on Saturday.

Harry Bates.

The rescue helicopter was tasked from the Sunshine Coast around 12:40pm.

The woman was treated for “multiple injuries” and flown to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.

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See the full results of the weekend’s racing here.