Neal Bates (born 19 March 1965) is an Australian rally and racing car driver. Throughout his career Bates has been associated with

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

in the

Australian Rally Championship The Australia Rally Championship (ARC) is Australia's leading road motor rally competition. A multi-event national championship has been held each year since 1968. Competition - to 2010 The Australia Rally Championship takes in some of the c ...

and for 19 years his Neal Bates Motorsport outfit ran Toyota's official rally program in Australia. Bates claimed four drivers' titles in this time and helped Toyota win four manufacturers' crowns. Bates' navigator/co-driver since 1993 has been

Coral Taylor Coral Taylor (born 1961) is an Australian female rally co-driver. Taylor comes from a strong rallying family, she is the daughter of veteran rally driver Norm Fritter, married to former Australian Championship driver Mark Taylor and mother to eme ...

. Bates long-time partnership with Toyota also brought the first of many circuit racing opportunities, a drive in a star search program in Toyota's

Australian Touring Car Championship The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the trop ...

team. This led to a number of touring car racing opportunities with the factory Toyota Corolla teams as well as V8 Supercar teams including Paul Weel Racing, Glenn Seton Racing and

Gibson Motor Sport Gibson Motorsport was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1981 until 2003, though the team had its roots in Gibson's "Road & Track" team which ran a series of Ford Falcon GTHOs in Series ...

Career results

WRC results

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

* Super Touring race

Complete Sandown endurance results

References

External links

Neal Bates website

WRC Results (eWRC)

Profile on Driver Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Neal 1965 births Australian rally drivers Australian Touring Car Championship drivers Living people Sportspeople from Canberra Racing drivers from the Australian Capital Territory Supercars Championship drivers World Rally Championship drivers Australian Endurance Championship drivers Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers Twin sportspeople