{"id":380518,"date":"2026-04-15T10:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380518\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T10:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:46:20","slug":"harry-bates-reveals-wrc-return-with-toyota-tribute-livery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380518\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Bates reveals WRC return with Toyota tribute livery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-3.jpg\" alt=\"Bates reveals WRC return with Toyota tribute livery\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHarry Bates&#8217; Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 next to the Neal Bates\/Coral Taylor Toyota Corolla WRC.<\/p>\n<p>Bates and Williams have entered the upcoming Rally Portugal, the fifth round of the WRC2 season with Sports Racing Technologies.<\/p>\n<p>To make the special occasions, Bates will sport a scheme paying homage to his father Neal Bates and co-driver Coral Taylor.<\/p>\n<p>The Toyota GR Yaris will be white with blue and red flashes to match the Toyota Corolla WRC that Bates and Taylor made famous in the Australian Rally Championship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an incredible opportunity to compete at Rally Portugal and step into WRC2 again,\u201d said Bates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPortugal is one of, if not the biggest rally in the world and it\u2019s a rally I\u2019ve dreamt of doing for a long time. It\u2019s going to be a huge challenge, but one we\u2019re ready to take on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA special thanks to Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia for their support in helping bring this together. It\u2019s a fantastic opportunity and I\u2019m very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/4cq9M8W\" style=\"color:#f06d25;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here <\/a>to see what it takes to build the Gold Coast street circuit <\/p>\n<p>Bates made his last FIA World Rally Championship start in 2022, finishing fourth in WRC2 at Rally New Zealand behind Hayden Paddon, Shane van Gisbergen, and Kajetan Kajetanowicz.<\/p>\n<p>Bates\u2019 return to WRC2 is being supported by Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia.<\/p>\n<p>John Pappas, Toyota vice president of national sales, marketing and franchise operations, hailed the opportunity for Bates to compete on the world stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the core pillars of Toyota Gazoo Racing is developing people and providing them with opportunities to grow, and Harry\u2019s WRC2 campaign in Portugal is a perfect example of that philosophy in action,\u201d said Pappas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHarry has consistently demonstrated the talent, discipline and professionalism required to succeed at the highest level of rallying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRally Portugal is one of the toughest events on the world rally calendar, and we\u2019re excited to see Harry showcase just how competitive he is on the global stage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rally Portugal takes place on May 7-10.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, he will compete in the Australian Rally Championship-opening Rally Queensland on April 17-19.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-4.jpg\" data-lbwps-width=\"1920\" data-lbwps-height=\"1080\" data-lbwps-srcsmall=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-4-300x169.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-4-300x169.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Harry Bates' Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for Rally Portugal.\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1027657\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tHarry Bates\u2019 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for Rally Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-2.jpg\" data-lbwps-width=\"1920\" data-lbwps-height=\"1080\" data-lbwps-srcsmall=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-2-300x169.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-2-300x169.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Harry Bates' Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for Rally Portugal.\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1027655\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tHarry Bates\u2019 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for Rally Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-1.jpg\" data-lbwps-width=\"1920\" data-lbwps-height=\"1080\" data-lbwps-srcsmall=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-1-300x169.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-bates-gr-yariss-wrc2-rally2-1-300x169.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Harry Bates' Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for Rally Portugal.\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1027654\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tHarry Bates\u2019 Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 for Rally Portugal.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/296619\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/296619.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Bates&#8217; Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 next to the Neal Bates\/Coral Taylor Toyota Corolla WRC. Bates and Williams&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-380518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}