The opening day has seen plenty of thrills and spills, as the leaders exchanged stage wins on Saturday’s action at The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally.

Reigning Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) Harry Bates and Coral Taylor ended the day on top of the standings, 12.3 seconds ahead of Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall.

It was an epic battle at the top of the leaderboard, with Pedder and Bates enjoying four stage wins apiece, with a number of the stage results decided by less than a second.

View the day’s standings at the Subaru Results Hub.

With this weekend one of the ARC’s endurance events, no points are awarded on Saturday – with crews having to finish on Sunday before the standings are finalised.

The top two battle sits delicately poised, with Bates and Pedder also battling for Championship honours as the current top two in the outright standings.

“Strong day, we had a good rhythm from the first stage and managed to stay in control,” Bates said.

“All-in-all, a very solid day. The car, Coral and everyone was really on their game today so it feels good.

“(Tomorrow is) a totally different day. Super technical stages, whereas today’s stages were quite fast, so we have quite a different thought pattern going into tomorrow.”

The fellow Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia pilots in Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin sit third and are also enjoying a battle of their own – only seven seconds separating the Toyota and Hyundai.

When it comes to the ARC Cups, there was plenty of drama throughout the field.

In the ultra-competitive MainFix ARC Production Cup, 2016 ARC Champion Molly Taylor and co-driver Andy Sarandis lead the way, ahead of 2023 Production Cup winners Bodie Reading and Mark Young.

Turning to the Junior ARC Cup, Mitch Garrad and Taylah Murphy enjoyed a solid day out to hold the Cup lead heading into Sunday.

In the 2WD ARC Cup, Nick Seymour and Matthew Whitten have powered ahead in their Ford Fiesta.

For the Trenching Systems Australia 2WD Classic ARC Cup competitors it was a tough day on the rough roads of Victoria. James Leoncini and co-driver Mark Leoncini led the way throughout Sunday morning, before a mechanical failure on the day’s sixth stage saw them park up. That gave Ivan Thompson and co-driver Lachlan Nordsvan the chance to power ahead and claim the Cup lead on Saturday.

In the debut of the Subaru WRX Challenge one-make series, Glenn Brinkman and Scott Beckwith hold a commanding lead in class heading into Sunday’s eight stages.

Sunday’s action includes another eight stages in Victoria’s stunning Gippsland region, with the first stage of the day getting underway just after 10am.

Full results, highlights and updates are available on rally.com.au.