The official championship points for the RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship have been updated following an entertaining Shannons Rally Launceston.
 
Extending his lead at the top of the standings following a clean sweep of stage wins was Harry Bates, while Richie Dalton remained in second place after a solid haul of points on the Apple Isle.
 
Although the top two remain the same, there was a change for third with Lewis Bates moving into the position at the expense of Tom Clarke, who had a big crash on the penultimate stage of the first Heat.
 
Lewis wasn’t the only driver to benefit from Clarke’s premature retirement, with a career best performance from Troy Dowel earning him the third highest haul of points for the weekend and fourth place on the standings.
 
Seventh and eighth respectively in Tasmania saw Daniel Gonzalez and Taylor Gill move into seventh and sixth on the standings – with just five points the difference after two appearances each for the season.
 

Of course crews are able to drop their worst round of the year in the outright standings, meaning only six rounds out of the seven will count at the end of the year.
 
In the battle of the Cups, despite a difficult weekend, Gill has moved back to the top of the White Wolf Constructions ARC Production Cup, leapfrogging an absent Ronald Bustard in the process.
 
However, crews are only required to complete a certain number of rounds to win each Cup, even if they enter more rounds than required – their best events going towards their Cup tallies.
 
There was also a change in the Shamrock Haulage ARC 2WD Cup with a runner-up placing to Dean Ridge elevating him to the top of the class standings, while Shannons Rally Launceston Cup winner Ryan Williams sits third behind James Dimmock.
 
With Molly Spalding absent from the event, it allowed Dimmock to move to the top of the Glendun ARC Junior Cup standings.
 
There was a big change in the outright co-driver championship with Dale Moscatt now leading the charge after the late withdrawal of John McCarthy due to COVID-19.
 
Click here to view the full standings after round three.
 
A short turnaround faces ARC crews as they head north, with the next round, Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland, taking place on 22-24 July.