Neal Bates has won the Stadium Cars / Ssangyong International Classic Rally of Otago for the second year in succession.

Held to the south of Dunedin, Bates and co-driver, Coral Taylor, were the class of the field, even beating New Zealand’s WRC star Hayden Paddon, who crashed out of the lead on day one.

Deane Buist drove a Ford Escort RS1800 into second place, one minute and 46 seconds behind Bates, while two-time Otago Rally winner Derek Ayson was third in his Nissan-powered Escort.

Also in the field was 1994 World Rally Champion Didier Auriol. The Frenchman spent much of the rally trying to tune the suspension of his borrowed Ford Escort RS1800 to better suit his driving style. His improved speed on the second day ultimately saw a win on the final stage of the day, showing that he was finally coming to grips with the car and local roads.

After Paddon’s crash on stage six, Bates took a 46 second lead into the second day’s eight special stages and was never challenged for the win.

“We’ve had a brilliant event and the car has run perfectly throughout,” Bates said. ‘We had a lead of over a minute when we nearly put the car on its roof on the first corner of stage 10, so I decided then it was probably time to back off a bit and make sure we got to the finish.”

“We just love this rally. The roads are simply incredible, the people are wonderful and we just love coming back.”