ZACH Bates couldn’t have picked a better place to announce himself to the Australian public.
The Canberran has always been well regarded, not only for being a fine talent but an ultra-friendly chap.
Of course, pedigree is aplenty. His uncle Neal and cousins Harry and Lewis all have Australian Rally Championship crowns to their credit. Zach’s father Rick similarly enjoyed several off-road successes, not to mention multiple Bathurst 1000 starts.
Zach shone in Toyota 86s, then matched up reasonably well against Walkinshaw Super2 teammate Ryan Wood, then won the 2024 Supercars feeder series title, then dazzled on main game debut last year at Queensland Raceway.
In February, Bates qualified top 10 for all three races in the opening round of his rookie campaign with Matt Stone Racing.
But after a wretched mid-season run, there were few who could have anticipated what would transpire on the biggest stage there is in Supercars.
The #10 Chevrolet flew under the radar during the first few practice sessions. Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh
Having yet to record a top-eight race result, and sitting 18th in the overall points, it’s understandable why the 22-year-old was not on the radar of many.
He sure is now.
Bates turned up the wick in remarkable fashion in parallel with the stakes rising throughout Great Race weekend.
He set not the only fastest lap in qualifying, but the fastest two (!) laps. They are the fastest two laps ever in a Gen3 Supercar around Mount Panorama.
That was one thing. It wouldn’t have been a shock, nor would it have been frowned upon, if he drifted thereafter.
But the more pressure and spotlight intensified, the more he flourished.
Come the Top 10 Shootout, Brodie Kostecki put himself on the cusp of history with an outstanding time that proved too good for subsequent runners Will Brown, Cooper Murray and Anton De Pasquale.
The last man standing, Bates ragged his Bendix Camaro in truly impressive fashion. The Camaro’s straight-line superiority was always going to help in the first and third sectors, but for Bates to gap the field by a tenth of a second in the middle sector alone (i.e. across the top of the Mountain) was the stuff of legend.
He went quickest of all in every sector and, with the nation watching on, roared to pole position with 0.2850s in hand to end Kostecki’s reign.
“Zach Bates, you are a star,” Richard Craill called, fittingly, on the broadcast.
Zach Bates. Pic: Supplied/Kass Brumley
Still, from there, Bates and co-driver Aaron Seton did not relent, standing tall to finish third for an underdog podium.
Had it not been for a late-race Safety Car, the unheralded duo almost certainly would have combined for arguably the biggest boilover win in event history.
As it turned out, Bates was freight-trained by Kostecki and Brown in the dying stages before De Pasquale up the road would run out of fuel.
“I made a small mistake at the Chase and that’s what set Brodie up for the last corner. He did an intelligent move, a good move, and got it done,” Bates confessed post-race.
“I obviously knew that he had a good tyre delta in hand and that it was going to be tough. They had been so fast.”
Nevertheless, there was no detracting from an almighty breakout performance.
“We knew he could do it and he picked a hell of a place to do it fully, so we’re stoked,” said MSR owner Matt Stone.
Bates won’t be a finals contender as the Supercars championship fight heads to the Gold Coast next week, and he still has not yet even officially been announced for a seat on the 2027 grid.
But his Bathurst heroics won’t be forgotten in a hurry and are sure to have his name firmly on the map for a long time to come.
Pic: Ross Gibb