Bates' illness battle in trying Eggleston debut

Reigning Dunlop Super2 Series champion Zach Bates endured a difficult opening weekend at his new home at Eggleston Motorsport in the opening round at the Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round.

Things were running perfectly to plan for the 20-year-old initially, topping Friday practice on combined times, however that was as good as it got for Bates.

A top five finish on Sunday was the Canberran's best result of the weekend, whilst new teammates Jordyn Sinni and Cody Burcher shone, with the former claiming his maiden race and round wins.

Speaking to Supercars.com, Bates revealed that it was an unexpected hurdle that made his debut weekend with the two-time defending Super2 Teams Champions more difficult than he could've imagined.

"Switching over to Eggleston's has been a really positive experience so far," said the reigning champion.

"Ben and Rach and the whole team have been an absolute pleasure to deal with, and we definitely had some speed in parts all weekend, just didn't quite get it all together.

"Nonetheless, it was good to get the first one out of the way with EMS."

Making matters worse for Bates on Saturday, he made a critical mistake on the run to Turn 8 in the opening laps after starting fifth, locking up an inside front and being forced to limit the damage with a flat spotted tyre, finishing ninth.

"Yeah it definitely was, I torched that inside front pretty hard, it was unfortunate. I probably went quite hard at the start and the deg was pretty significant, so it was just quite tough.

"Honestly, I just couldn't quite get a rhythm."

In the lead up to last year's VAILO Adelaide 500, it was announced that Bates would be leaving Walkinshaw Andretti United to join Triple Eight for a main game opportunity in their wildcard program.

After claiming the development series crown - Walkinshaw Group's first Supercars title of any kind since 2009 - it was announced that Bates would swap WAU for Eggleston, ironically coming up against his current employers.

Bates joins Sinni, Burcher, Elliott Cleary, and rookie Bradi Owen at an expanded Eggleston operation, and is enjoying having extra data to study in a larger team.

"It's a five car team, I can't remember the last time they would've run five cars, they might've a few years ago, it's a big, big workload.

"It's always good when you have teammates who you can learn things from, and they might be something better than you, and you're doing something better than them, so there's always something to learn.

"Having that many cars, there's plenty of data to look at and vision, so everyone's got their own ideas and you can pick their brains.

"It's been interesting coming from a two car team into a five car team, I've never worked in a team this big, so it's been very interesting.

"Look, we had good speed, there's no doubt about that, I just didn't get it right myself on Sunday, so we'll have a good think about it."

Before the next round of the Dunlop Super2 Series at Symmons Plains in May, Bates will likely join Triple Eight at the upcoming Melbourne SuperSprint, as he continues to familiarise himself with the ways of the 12-time Supercars Teams Champions.

"That's my plan, it'll be great to be able to hang out around the Triple Eight guys, it's always cool to see how they go about it.

"Probably won't be heading over to New Zealand, but all of the Aussie ones I will try to get there, so it'll be very exciting.

"It's cool that they allow me to get in there and have a look, so I'm looking forward to it."

Round 2 of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series will take place at the Tasmania Super 440 from May 9-11, as the development series returns to the Apple Isle for the first time since 2018.