They came, they saw and they conquered.
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Toyota Gazoo Racing top dogs Harry Bates and John McCarthy left their rival drivers in their dust to snare the Rally Tasmania crown.
The stunning 16-stage win - notwithstanding Molly Taylor and Malcolm Read upstaging them on the final drive of the rally - has in the process secured a round-three win in the 2019 CAMS Australian Rally Championship.
It was a show of force from the Toyota Yaris AP4 crew, adding their Tasmanian leg win to their victories at the Forest Rally in Western Australia and Capital Rally in Canberra.
Bates has all but cemented the championship title at the halfway point of the season, but felt the contest over the weekend was real.
"There were certainly stages where they were closing and that kept it interesting," Bates, 24, said, "but we had the plan to go out, attack the first few stages as hard as we could and then kind of control from the front."
Subaru do Motorsport's Taylor and Read deservedly claimed second overall.
They pipped the champions by just 0.8 seconds on stage 17 that added one last twist to the storied Tasmanian tale, an event that only returned last year after a 14-year hiatus.
Taylor, Australia's leading female driver, finished Sunday's heat ultimately in third, but combined with a second placing on Saturday, took second on the podium from Toyota duo Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin.
The 22-year-old younger sibling was tied on points with Taylor, but that stage win gave the Subaru second spot on a countback.
A penalty for the use of an additional tyre that was not allocated under the rules would cost four-time ARC champion Simon Evans a place on the podium in Launceston.
That error of judgement ensured Evans dropped to fourth for the heat once the two-minute sanction was applied, ruining an impressive day's driving on Sunday.
Bodie Reading waved the flag for Tasmanian hopes on the big stage, earning a top-five finish on Sunday with co-driver Mark Young.
The Hobart Bridgestone tyre fitter bounced back in his Carver Mechanical WRX STi car from an ordinary Saturday to show his ticker and promise for the future.
Andrew Mathieson
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
The day I realised I wasn't good enough to play for St Kilda or be the No.1 spinner for Australia was when I realised journalism was the closest I could come to follow my passion for sport. And it's not just about the scores for me. It's the back story behind the game.
