Richard Glen Bates (born 19 March 1965) is an Australian rally driver. He is the twin brother of the rally and racing driver,
Neal Bates
Neal Anthony Bates (born 19 March 1965) is an Australian rally and racing car driver. Throughout his career Bates has been associated with Toyota in the Australian Rally Championship and for 19 years his Neal Bates Motorsport outfit ran Toyota's ...
. Whilst Neal has achieved more success in the
Australian Rally Championship
The Motorsport Australia Rally Championship, also commonly known as the Australian Rally Championship (ARC), is Australia's premier gravel rally competition. A multi-event national championship has been held each year since 1968, excepting 202 ...
, winning it four times, Rick has won two major cross country events in a nine-year span. The first was Panama-Alaska in 1997 and the next win was the Carrera Sudamericana in 2006.
He has, on at least one occasion, competed directly against his twin brother.
Career
In 1997, Bates won the Panama to Alaska rally driving a
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 model series (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in ) is a family of German two-door, high performance Rear-engine design, rear-engine sports cars, introduced in September 1964 by Porsche, Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. Now in it ...
with his co-driver Jenny Brittan. He has also appeared in two events of the
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...
. First, he drove to 30th place at Rally Australia 1997 in a Daihatsu Charade GTi. Then, he drove at China Rally 1999, this time in a Volkswagen Jetta GTX, but he retired on the fifth special stage.
In both occasions, he was co-driven by Jenny Brittan with whom he won the Panama to Alaska rally in 1997. The former event saw him race with his twin brother Neal who scored points with an eighth-place finish.
In 1997 he won the
Australian Formula 2 Rally Championship driving a
Daihatsu Charade GTi.
In 2000, he was third in the
London-Sydney Marathon, finishing behind
Stig Blomqvist
Stig Lennart Blomqvist (born 29 July 1946) is a retired Swedish rally driver. He made his international breakthrough in 1971. Driving an Audi Quattro for the Audi factory team, Blomqvist won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1984 an ...
and
Michele Mouton.
In 2006, Bates and Brittan also won the Carrera Sudamericana in
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
.
Rally results
WRC results
Circuit results
Supercars Championship results
(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete Bathurst 1000 results
Complete Sandown endurance results
Complete Bathurst/Eastern Creek 12 Hour results
Complete Bathurst 6 Hour results
External links
WRC Results (eWRC)*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Rick
Australian rally drivers
1965 births
World Rally Championship drivers
Supercars Championship drivers
Living people
Australian Endurance Championship drivers
Sportspeople from Canberra
Racing drivers from the Australian Capital Territory
V8 Utes drivers