Bates and co-driver John McCarthy took out the early honours in the Super Special stage at Inveresk ahead of the weekend's rallying.

Bates felt the victory had set a positive frame of mind for the second trip back to Launceston since CAMS revived the event after 14 years.

"Nights like that you can't win the rally, but you can lose it," Bates said.

"Our goal is to have a neat run and try and get a good time on the board, which is what we managed to do.

"So it feels like a big tick and now we can get into the rally proper in the forests."

The ceremonial start to the two-day rally was set over a 820-metre bitumen course in the Inveresk precinct.

The 24-year-old won the ARC and the APRC Pacific Cup for Toyota Gazoo Racing.

The impressive time of 52.7 seconds just edged out Richie Dalton and Dale Moscatt by 0.4 seconds.

"We're always learning and tonight we got to have a nice warm-up as well as the actual stage," Bates said.

"I learnt from that a little about tackling the stage, but it's such a tricky one because it's under a minute.

"So you almost have to get it perfect to get a stage win.

"It felt like such a good run, really neat and tidy. But there were definitely a lot of other guys nipping at our heels."

Tim Auty and Jon Mitchell claimed the Tasmanian Rally Championship contest of the night in 55.1 seconds driving a Mazda 323 GTR.

Nic Grave and Craig Sheahen enjoyed local plaudits for a Subaru Impreza RS Challenge win in 58.0 seconds.

Canberra driver Bates said he loved the cold weather in front of diehard petrolheads.

"I'm a massive fan of the Friday night super specials stage," Bates said.

"We get to do a couple of others throughout the year.

"To me, it's just really good to get to perform in front of that many people and generate that much interest for the Tasmanian rally.

"To see such a big crowd there again tonight and to get to compete in that sort of atmosphere was a really cool feeling."