'Not good enough': Bates' brutal self-criticism

Matt Stone Racing rookie Zach Bates has made a frank admission following a frustrating weekend at the betr Darwin Triple Crown.

He needs to be getting better results.

His Darwin weekend was another where the 2024 Super2 champion starred in qualifying trim, getting into the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootouts on both Saturday and Sunday, split across both tyre compounds.

However, that was only converted into twin 21st place finishes, as incidents and penalties cost the 22-year-old a chance to vault forward from 17th in points.

Pace was evident in both MSR Camaros, with Jack Le Brocq joining Bates in both Shootouts, which were converted into dual top 10 finishes as the two-time race winner kept his Finals hopes alive.

"Jack did a fantastic job in both the qualifying and the races, and the races for me, just not good enough in the races," said Bates on the Equip Super Cool Down Lap.

"No two ways about it, I'm just not doing a good enough job."

It hasn't been all bad for Bates in 2026, a deeper dive into the season's numbers showing that he's ranked third in the field for tyre degradation, and fourth in the field for overtakes.

But, mistakes in races have cost him dearly, with Bates ranked the lowest in the field for positions lost/gained on the opening laps in races, and 20th over the course of full races.

The latter was again a bugbear for Bates in Darwin. On Saturday, he ran off at Turn 5 battling James Golding, before returning to the circuit and running Declan Fraser off the road, picking up 15 seconds for his troubles.

On Sunday, Bates spun off at Turn 1 whilst trying to get by Jayden Ojeda, before he picked up a five second penalty after nudging his way past Rylan Gray.

"The speed is actually quite decent in the two long races, I made a mistake trying to pass Ojeda," Bates continued.

"I had a few lap better tyres on him and made a mistake there, and obviously got the penalty with Rylan, so just scrappy things I need to tune up."

A further kick in the teeth came on Saturday when his 15 second penalty for escorting Fraser off the road was incorrectly served at his final stop.

Confusion surrounded the circumstances of the extra penalty, which stewards' findings revealed to be a misjudgement of the 15 seconds.

The stewards' report read: "After all work was completed on Car 10, Car 10 remained stationary for 13.8 seconds, not the 15 seconds it was required to serve."

Bates further explained: "We had a bit of a time misjudgement and didn't serve the full 15, so then I got another five on top of that.

"I don't think we had a stopwatch, so he was doing the Mississippi's to make sure."

The next round of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship will be held at the NTI Townsville 500 from July 10-12.