Jane Bates: keeping her off-road warriors on-track for success

Posted on 19 March, 2019

If you find yourself amongst the forest crowds for the Netier National Capital Rally in May, and the woman next to you is looking just a little uneasy—maybe she can’t keep still, or perhaps she might even have her fingers discreetly crossed for good luck—chances are you are in the presence of a “Rally Mum”. 

And if anyone has the credentials to write a thesis on the highs, lows, and risks of this exhilarating motorsport, it’s Canberra’s Jane Bates—wife of Australian rally legend Neal Bates, and mum to Harry and Lewis Bates, both now chasing their own dreams as pro-drivers for Toyota Gazoo Racing.

“It is very different watching your husband driving to having your two sons involved. Before we met in 1987, Neal had been competing for many years, so he knew the sport inside out,” says Jane.

“But having your own children compete,  is certainly tougher than I thought. I tend to be a little emotional as they leave the Service Park for the forest. But it’s a proud emotion.”

Born and bred in Bega on the far New South Wales south coast, Jane remembers fondly, as a young girl, putting out the deck chairs to cheer on the local rally drivers as they sped through the dirt roads on her family’s dairy farm. Little did she know back then how rally would be such a life-force for her future.

“When Neal and I were first married we had just started our own mechanical business, and then at night, Neal would be doing long hours at the workshop getting the rally car ready for an event.

“When Harry and Lewis came along, I was often left juggling the business and the kids. I do joke to people that I have three sons—one’s just a bit older.”

If you’ve never experienced rally up close and personal, put down your X-Box controller, and get out into the forest in May. Rally really needs to be experienced to get a sense of just how many variables come into play for the driver and co-driver—rocks, trees, dust clouds, rogue kangaroos and cows.

Like most motorsports, rally comes with an element of risk, and over three decades, Jane has learned to manage the anxiety and worry around what could go wrong.

“I did have a lot of trust in Neal and what he was capable of in the car, And I have learned to shut out a lot of the nerves over time,’ she says.

“Worrying about something doesn’t necessarily prevent it from happening. Being supportive is more important. I actually worried more about a very tired Neal driving the truck home after the event and crashing, than having an incident on the rally itself.”

Everyone always asks Jane if it was inevitable that Harry and Lewis would follow in Neal’s tyre-tracks?

“As teenagers, Harry was competing at national level with race walking, and Lewis was a first-grade soccer player. Much cheaper and a lot less dangerous. But both have shown the commitment and the talent, which definitely does not come from my side of the family.”

The Bates family

There’s rarely been a year of the Netier National Capital Rally when there hasn’t been a “Bates” out in our ACT forests.   And, for Jane, the home event means a madhouse of visitors who need re-fuelling as much as the cars.

“Our service crew is very much a large extended family. And my job is to keep them fed and watered. I prefer to be kept busy, so that suits me.  And I find it less stressful staying in the Service Park at Pialligo Estate with the team, where I can hear firsthand how the boys are going.”

The pressure to do well at a home event is not lost on Harry and Lewis, and Jane believes it has been harder for the boys to carry that pedigree as novices.

“Neal and I have always said, ‘you need to love what you do, regardless of outcomes’.  Both boys have always been competitive in whatever they take on, right from the early days when we bought them an old green Celica paddock-basher we called Shrek.

“But what we’re most proud of is watching them grow into amazing, caring, quite humble young men.”

Check out more about the Netier National Capital Rally, including the best places to spectate, via their website or Facebook page.