Bates Champion Again after 14 Years
43 year old Toyota driver Neal Bates became Australian national rally champion for the fourth time, fourteen years after his last title! It was necessary for him simply to finish the first heat of the Coffs Coast Rally in the top fifteen places, his eighth place gave him comfortably the points he needed. He started rallying in 1984 in a Datsun but has been a Toyota driver ever since. His two previous titles were in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Bates has been almost as accomplished a racing driver as he is at rallying, competing many times at Bathurst, as well as on the asphalt Targa Tasmania. He is an identical twin brother to Rick Bates, also very experienced race and rally driver. Heat 1 of Coffs Coast Rally was won by Bates' teammate Simon Evans. Second place on Heat 1 was taken by British driver Guy Wilks in a two-wheel drive Honda Civic Type R. Wilks confirmed today in Coffs Harbour that his entry on Wales Rally GB may be withdrawn unless Mitsubishi win their appeal against Wilks' exclusion from Yorkshire Rally.

Wilks Crashes in Australia
Guy Wilks had a major accident at the Coffs Coast Rally in New South Wales when his front-wheel drive Honda hit a tree stump on the inside of a fast sweeping bend. Both Guy and codriver Phil Pugh were unhurt. They were lying third overall on the second heat of the event, but with a strong chance of winning the two-day event outright. Overall winner of the event was Subaru driver Eli Evans, brother of Toyota driver Simon Evans who retired on day 2 when his gearbox failed. Earlier Guy told journalists that he expected he would be contesting ten of the twelve rounds of the 2009 World Championship series in an official Subaru.

Acropolis Returns to Peloponnese
Route details issued unusually early by the organisers of the Acropolis Rally show that the route for the 2009 event will visit the Peloponnese region for the first time since 1985. The Saturday stages will be held in this vast peninsula to the west of the Corinth canal, a decision made feasible by the new headquarters town of Loutraki, close to Corinth. The event is to be sponsored by a consortium led by the Casino industry of Loutraki, coupled with Costa Coffee, the distributor of Italian coffee which is owned by rally driver Aris Vovos, and the mountain spring water suppliers of Loutraki. Meanwhile in Athens on Friday was a ceremony to deliver the first Opel Corsa Super 2000. This has been acquired by Haris Kaltsounis, the sixty year old GM dealer in Greece. Kaltsounis is planning to run the car for the first time on the Mavro Rodo Rally, final round of the Greek national championship.

Wilson Wins Again
Malcolm Wilson, father of world championship driver Matthew and proprietor of M-Sport, won the four-day Roger Albert Clark Rally for post historic cars. The top fourteen cars to complete the event were Fords, thirteen of them being Escorts, and Wilson's RS1800 finished more than six minutes in front of David Stokes in an RS1600. The event was run in the style of the old RAC world championship rallies, with the title name reflecting the happy coincidence of the full name of the late Roger Clark who won the RAC rally twice. The event based at Carlisle was run mostly on forest stages in North England and south Scotland. The top non Escort was the Lotus Cortina of Bob Bean. Steve Perez started the final stage with his Lancia Stratos in seventh place, but the engine failed and he did not reach the end.

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