QUINN CLAIMS FIRST WIN OF 2023 IN FOREST RALLY THRILLER

Nathan Quinn and Ray WinwoodSmith won the second round of the 2023 Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) after taking out Heat 2 of the Make Smoking History Forest Rally.

The 2017 ARC Champion had been in outright second place for most of Sunday until a one-minute penalty to leaders Harry Bates and Coral Taylor ahead of the EROAD Power Stage elevated him to top spot.

Quinn managed to bring his Hyundai i20 G4 home to third place on the final stage of the day – confirming both the Heat win and outright victory over reigning ARC Champions Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin.

Finishing second in both Heats, Bates and McLoughlin just missed out on the outright win to Quinn and Winwood-Smith, who finished third in Heat 1, but didn’t leave empty handed as they claimed maximum bonus points during the EROAD Power Stage.

In what was a thrilling conclusion to an exciting rally and symbolic of the end result, Lewis and McLoughlin snatched the stage win off Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia teammates in Harry and Taylor by the smallest of margins – ending a solid campaign for the reigning champions.

It was a tough pill to swallow for Harry and Taylor after the duo had their victory taken away from them in the lead up to the EROAD Power Stage and had been leading Heat 2 up until that stage.

However, despite being gifted the lead in the lead up, Quinn was still a deserving winner after overcoming several issues early in the rally to claim multiple stages across the weekend.

“It was certainly worth a trip,” Quinn said.

“We decided early to come and the decision has paid off. It is a shame the way it happened for us to get the win, but overall we had a good event.

“Fabulous drives by Harry and Lewis and one day I will get a Power Stage win.”

Even though they didn’t walk away with the outright win, Harry remained positive having left Western Australia with a collection of stage wins and his first heat win in almost a year.

“It’s been a long time between drinks and probably longer than I would have imagined, but it was the perfect day,” Bates said after his Heat 1 win.

“We really just focused on getting our rhythm and enjoying ourselves and Coral and I’ve had the perfect day. The car has been amazing and we really just felt at one with it all day.

“I think over the last 11 months, since my last heat win, we’ve had speed, but there’s been certain things that haven’t gone our way. So it was always there. It just required myself in the car to have a clean run and put it all together.”

Finishing the event outright fourth place courtesy of a Heat 2 third place was Troy Dowel and Bernie Webb in the Skoda Fabia R5, while Eddie Maguire and Zak Brakey rounded out the top five.

In what was another stellar performance by the Tasmanians, Maguire and Brakey guided their Contel Communications Subaru WRX to the White Wolf Constructions ARC Production Cup victory in dominant fashion. Their fifth place outright also came at the expense of West Australians Daniel Gonzalez and Daymon

Nicoli, whose Heat 2 fourth place was their best for the round.

The Skoda Fabia R5 pilots also wrapped up the event with an overall win in the Dunlop WA Motorsport Australia Rally Championship, beating Peter Rullo and James Marquet in the Hyundai i20 R2 and ARC debutants Craig Rando and Scott Beckwith –both of whom finished the weekend in the outright event top 10.

Sanders - the Tasmanians steering their Mazda RX7 to the ARC Classic Cup win, having claimed top honours on Sunday and second in Heat 1. The Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship continues heads to the sunshine state next with the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland to take place in Gympie on 21-23 July.

Ben and Catherine Hayes continued their strong 2023 campaign with a victory in the ARC 2WD Cup, as they finished second for the class in both heats.

After a challenging Saturday, Queenslanders Josh Wiedman and Nick Reid had a happy ending to their WA debut, taking out ARC 2WD Cup Heat 2 honours and the overall Shamrock Haulage ARC Junior Cup.

Rounding out the Cup wins was David Thompson and Matthew

View results at the Subaru Results Hub.

View the full ARC standings at rally.com.au