The Bates family and Toyota are synonymous in Australia as the long-time association will be celebrated at the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
Neal Bates won four Australian Rally Championships with the marque spanning 15 years starting in the iconic Toyota Celica GT-Four and his final being won in the Australian-developed Corolla S2000.
Enjoying a memorable rivalry with Subaru’s Possum Bourne and Ed Ordynski of Mitsubishi during a high of Australian rallying during the 1990s, Bates has remained loyal to Toyota even if it hasn’t been involved in rallying.
Canberra-based Neal Bates Motorsport has developed many world class rally variants for Toyota including the aforementioned S2000 Corolla and the current championship winning AP4 Yaris. Also, it has developed the successful Toyota GAZOO Racing Australia 86 Series and provides many of the components to competitors having just recently completed the release of the second generation model.
The Bates-Toyota legacy continues to this day in the form of Neal’s sons Harry and Lewis, who in their own right have become successful, championship winning rally drivers.
All this and more will be experienced at the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival as the best of Toyota will be on display. Bates will bring his historic 1980 RA40 Celica, a 1985 ST185 Celica, 1994 ST205 Celica, 1998 Corolla WRC and 2022 GR Yaris AP4.
Son Harry will also be in attendance as the display of Toyotas will thrill crowds across the weekend.
The Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival is on March 16-17, showcasing some of the best and rarest racing machinery in the world in an event not to be missed.