Photos: Dakar Press Team Australia There has been plenty of movement in the Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) standings, following a thrilling Make Smoking History Forest Rally.
After their memorable first victory for 2023, Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith have powered up the rankings to move into second place for the outright Driver and Co-Driver standings – just 18 points off reigning champions Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin.
A well-deserved second place saw the Toyota duo move to 185 points, while Quinn and Winwood-Smith sit on a healthy 157 points after two rounds.
Like the leaders, Luke Anear and Malcolm Read remain in third despite enduring a difficult weekend in WA. Harry Bates and Coral Taylor’s long awaited heat win helped them finish the round in third place, and move up the championship standings to fourth place.
With Anear and Read on 127 points, Harry and Taylor’s outright podium and EROAD Power Stage bonus points see the duo just 14 points off Anear and one point ahead of Daniel Gonzalez and Daymon Nicoli, who round out the outright top five.
Sitting in sixth and seventh place on the Drivers’ standings respectively, just shy of 100 championship points, are Tasmanians Steve Maguire and Bodie Reading – with four points the difference between the two.
Finishing the Forest Rally in outright sixth place to Reading’s eleventh, Maguire leapfrogged the youngster on both the outright standings and in the White Wolf Constructions ARC Production Cup, where he is now the leader.
Reading’s co-driver Mark Young remains on top of the Production Cup co-driver standings after Maguire acquired the services of Dale Moscatt for the second round, who now sits fourth behind Maguire’s Rally Launceston co-driver Stuart Benson.
A dominant clean sweep of the heats in WA saw Eddie Maguire move into third for the Production Cup, while his usual co-driver Zak Brakey was instantly elevated to second above Benson and Moscatt.
Having been disqualified from Tasmania, Eddie also moves to 11th for the outright standings. The Subaru pilot trails outright drivers Troy Dowel, Peter Rullo and Jamie Luff to make up the top 10 – with the trio’s respective partners in Bernie Webb, James Marquet and Bradley Luff occupying seventh to ninth on the co-driver standings.
In the other Cups, Ben and Cathy Hayes comfortably lead the ARC 2WD Cup Standings after two wins on the trot – their closest rivals being Queenslanders Josh Wiedman and Nick Reid.
WA was Wiedman and Reid’s first ARC outing for the year and the youngsters showed plenty of promise throughout the 17-stage rally. The Ford Fiesta pilots topped the ARC 2WD Cup for Heat 2 – a fantastic recovery considering a Heat 1 retirement. Their strong Sunday also saw them bank valuable points to move into second place, as well as claim a victory in the Shamrock Haulage ARC Junior Cup, which they now lead.
In the ARC Classic Cup, David Thompson and Matthew Sanders made it two wins in a row, edging out David’s son Ivan and Nathan Quartermaine to go 129 points clear at the top. David Thomas was victorious on Saturday, but a roll in Heat 2 put an end to his impressive run of form aboard the Ford Escort.
View the full standings via the Subaru Results Hub.
The next round of the 2023 ARC season will be the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland on 21-23 July.
Keyword: WA sees big shake up in the ARC standings