Bates bemused by 'most uncompetitive weekend ever'

Reigning Dunlop Super2 Series champion Zach Bates hasn't shied away from a torrid Round 3 of the 2025 season at the NTI Townsville 500.

All five of Eggleston Motorsport's Commodores were unusually anonymous across the entire weekend, with Bates the team's top performer by virtue of a 10th place finish in Race 6 on Sunday.

However, on another weekend where Tickford Autosport dominated, what started with a top six in Practice 1 quickly faded for Bates.

"It was extremely tough, it probably does rate as my most uncompetitive weekend ever," Bates told Supercars.com.

"I don't think I've ever qualified 16th, so it's just extremely tough for the whole Eggleston team, we didn't quite find what we were looking for."

The Canberran also admitted that whilst he felt the balance of his car was fine throughout the weekend, the long green flag runs in Townsville exposed a lack of pace, though he is confident the two-time defending Super2 Teams' Champions will rebound quickly.

"It varied, we rolled out and to begin with it didn't have the worst feeling, but then we just didn't really progress from there.

"Just the whole weekend it was the same comments, didn't have the greatest tyre life. Qualifying wasn't too bad, but it blows out a lot more in the race."

"The Eggleston team are going to work extremely hard in the break to get things sorted, it's not where we want to be and far away from where we have been in the past."

Bates will be the busiest driver in the paddock at the next round at Queensland Raceway, as he will complete double duties, parlaying his Super2 commitments with a long-awaited Repco Supercars Championship debut.

Announced as Triple Eight's latest wildcard last November, the 21-year-old will contest the next three rounds of the Supercars season, as Ipswich leads into the Enduro Cup, where Bates will team up with seven-time Bathurst winner Craig Lowndes.

"Extremely excited, it's been a long wait since the announcement of it all, and I've been absolutely excited, been chomping at the bit to get it started.

"It'll be interesting to see, you always wonder where you're going to stack up, it's obviously going to be a very big challenge.

Bates will also benefit from a pre-event wildcard test day in Ipswich in the lead up to the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440, which will also allow the 21-year-old to gel with a new engineer.

With long-time Triple Eight staffer Wes McDougall running the team's revived Super2 program this season, recently departed Blanchard Racing Team engineer Matt Saunders makes his Triple Eight return to don the headset for the #888 Camaro.

"It's a tight turnaround between the test and the event, which I don't think is a bad thing.

"Testing the week and a half before the race meeting is quite a cool thing, so I'll go up to Brisbane and do a bunch of pre-briefs, and just try to learn as much as I can before the test day.

"We've got our wildcard engineer, obviously Wes is doing the Super2 stuff, so Matt Saunders is second in, and I'll obviously catch up with him which I'm very much looking forward to.

"He's done some great stuff in the past, so looking forward to working with him."

Round 4 of the 2025 Dunlop Super2 Series will be held at the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440 from August 8-10. Tickets for the event are on sale now.