Daniel Gonzalez has extended his lead at the top of the Dunlop Tyres WA Rally Championship after dominating from start to finish at the Morley Tyres Grimwade Stages.  

The third round of the 2023 WARC season welcomed 29 competitors for the round as they tackled eight challenging stages in an attempt to post the fastest possible cumulative time.

Alongside regular Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) co-driver Daymon Nicoli, Gonzalez won all but one stage on his way to a impressive 14 second victory over Dylan King and Lee Tierney.  

While the margin looked convincing on paper, Gonzalez was made to work in the early stages of the rally in his Skoda Fabia R5, after putting in the exact same time as the Subaru Impreza piloted by Craig Rando and Scott Beckwith on SS2.



But an 11 second SS3 win over Rando blew the lead out ahead of SS4, where another convincing victory, this time over King and Tierney, gave the leaders more than 20 seconds in hand by the halfway point of the rally.  

Gonzalez would fall short of King in SS6 but recovered nicely and had enough time in the bank to claim victory after winning the final two stages.

Finishing in third place behind  King and Tierney were Rando and Beckwith, while Timothy Hiles and Morgan Ward were a further 52 seconds back in fourth.

Rounding out the top five was Gary Mills and Mitchell Gray in their Peugeot 208, outlasting John O’Dowd and Toni Feaver, and Dale Faulkner and Rachael Ferrante in the Skoda Fabia and Subaru Impreza WRX alike.  

A much closer battle for the final places in the top 10 played out with Kelly Thomas and Stephanie Esterbauer coming out on top to claim eighth ahead of David Thomas and Mandy Lister, while Michael Steele and Katie Oxley sat firm in 10th.  


Elsewhere, Alex and Lisa White stormed their Nissan Silvia S13 to victory in the 2WD class in convincing fashion over David Smith and Roger Pederson.  

The Whites set themselves up early with a 32-second win in SS4, and despite losing two of the final three stages, another 30 second win in the final stage all but confirmed a dominant victory.  

Coming third in the class was the pairing of Scott Bennett and Gavin Turner, who were unable to pick up a stage win in their Mitsubishi Lancer but were rewarded with their solid performance.  

Following his performance, Gonzalez extends his lead at the top of the standings while Rando gained some valuable points in his fight for a top-two spot with Alex Rullo.  

The fourth round of the Dunlop Tyres WA Rally Championship will be the WA Car Club Karri Rally on 12 August.