Penalty gives Quinn the win in tight Nannup rally

Nathan Quinn and Ray Winwood-Smith emerged victorious in the final stages of the 2023 Make Smoking History Forest Rally, which took over Nannup at the weekend.

With the Australian Rally Championship making a return to Western Australia, 66 cars lined up to take the ceremonial start in Bunbury, before hitting the Super Special Stage at Bunbury Speedway.

The tight, twisty track kept the standings close, with the top five runners barely separated by five seconds at the end of the three Friday night runs.

The sunny conditions in the leadup to the rally made for a very dusty speedway stage, leading organisers to extend the interval between cars to allow the dust to settle. However the extra time forced officials to cancel the planned fourth run, as teams needed to make the early morning start in Nannup.

When the action did kick off in the normally quiet rural town, the Toyota pairing of Harry Bates and Coral Taylor found themselves at the top of the time sheets, and spent Saturday extending their lead out to 30 seconds over over reigning ARC Champions Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin.

Quinn and Winwood-Smith in their Hyundai i20 took three seconds out of that lead with a blistering stage ten time, and took the final stage win of the day by just one tenth of a second.

Bates and Taylor’s four stage wins earned them a healthy heat one victory, and they carried that momentum into Sunday’s heat two. The Hyundai pair were hot on their heels, but couldn’t quite match the Yaris for pace.

The overall win was looking certain for Bates and Taylor, until they were hit with a one minute penalty for an early check in before one of the late stages, rocketing Quinn into the lead.

Despite the tough competition from Lewis Bates, winning the EROAD Power Stage, the 2017 ARC champions had done enough. Taking the heat two win, and along with it, the overall victory in round two of the championship.

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