Neal Bates and Coral Taylor endured a heart-breaking end to their Australian Rally Championship title defence after they were forced to retire for the second time in two days during the 2009 season-ending Rally SA.
The 2008 national champions lost the chance to claim back-to-back titles yesterday when they stopped with an alternator problem prior to the final stage of Heat 1.
The crew fixed the Corolla S2000 before last night's opening two stages of Heat 2 which Bates claimed in another stunning performance of tarmac rallying.
He and Taylor entered today with a small lead over former team-mates Simon and Sue Evans, but their misery continued when the highly-reliable, naturally-aspirated Corolla refused to start before the day's first stage.
The four-time champions were unable to get underway and the chance of claiming a consolation heat win evaporated before action had even commenced.
Their retirement allowed Glen and Matt Raymond to overtake them in the standings and after a season that promised so much, Bates and Taylor were left with third place overall and their first zero-score rally since the 2001 edition of Rally Australia.
The entire Neal Bates Motorsport (NBM) team was gutted to finish the season on such a low note, although they did win the season-opening Rally Tasmania and claimed podium places at every rally apart from South Australia.
The Evans duo won Rally SA and in doing so claimed the 2009 Australian Rally Championship - the third of their career and first driving a car not engineered by NBM.
Neal Bates - Car #1:
"This has been a very disappointing way to end the season, but that's the way motorsport goes and we can't do anything about it. At the end of the day I am happy we ended the season on the podium in the championship and even though it is not where we wanted to be, it is still better than anything lower. This morning the car wouldn't start and we are yet to fully diagnose the problem. We won the first rally of the year and only finished off the podium here in South Australia, so all in all it has been a fairly successful season in trying circumstances. Our Corolla S2000 has been extremely reliable since we first started running it in 2007 and this is actually the first time we have not finished an event and only the second time in three seasons we haven't been on the podium with it. Congratulations to Simon and Sue for taking the rally and the title, Coral and I enjoyed battling with them all year."
Australian Rally Championship
Rally SA
Heat 1 - Final Results:
1) Simon Evans - Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 59m30.5s
2) Glen Raymond - Toyota Corolla Group N (P) +1m12.0
3) Eli Evans - Subaru Impreza WRX +1m42.6
4) Justin Dowel - Mitsubishi Lancer EVO +1m43.7
5) Ryan Smart - Mitsubishi Lancer EVO +3m23.5
DNF: Neal Bates - Toyota Corolla S2000
Australian Rally Championship
Rally SA
Heat 2 - Final Results:
1) Eli Evans - Subaru Impreza WRX 54m04.6s
2) Simon Evans - Mitsubishi Lancer EVO +11.5s
3) Glen Raymond - Toyota Corolla Group N (P) +28.1
4) Steven Shepheard - Mitsubishi Lancer EVO +1m38.7
5) Matt Selly - Subaru Impreza WRX +2m02.5
DNF: Neal Bates - Toyota Corolla S2000
Australian Rally Championship
Rally SA
Outright Results:
1) Simon Evans - Mitsubishi Lancer EVO
2) Eli Evans - Subaru Impreza WRX
3) Glen Raymond - Toyota Corolla Group N (P)
Australian Rally Championship
Rally SA
Final Championship Standings:
1) Simon Evans - Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 379.5 points
2) Glen Raymond - Toyota Corolla Group N (P) 338
3) Neal Bates - Toyota Corolla S2000 271