He's lost the sponsor he'd had for 20 years, had to lay off staff and may not have enough funds to see out the season. But somehow Neal Bates is leading the 2009 Australian Rally Championship The financial crisis has claimed his sponsor Toyota and several staff at his Hume workshop, but after last weekend's Western Australian Rally, Bates is now leading the ARC standings over Simon Evans halfway through the season.

While he still isn't sure if he and co-driver Coral Taylor will race the final three events, they'll fight hard to get to the start line.

''There is no prizemoney, you basically do it for pride, we are working hard to raise funds to try and make it,'' Bates said.

That included leasing his second Super-2000 Corolla, which was sitting in storage, to Darren Windus in Busselton last weekend.

He said the income he made from the lease might help him and Taylor in their quest to defend the ARC title they won last year.

''When you are leading the championship it's kind of hard not to keep going,'' he said.

Bates' weekend in Western Australia didn't get off to a great start when the car broke a steering rack last Saturday.

But it was quickly fixed and he blitzed the field on Sunday to win heat two and post enough points to overtake Simon and Sue Evans in the ARC lead.

''Despite all the doom and gloom, the rallying was still excellent,'' Bates said. ''That hasn't changed, it was a very competitive rally and the stage times were very close.'' Bates said despite being under the cloud of the financial crisis, the people involved in the ARC were still as friendly as ever.

Last week, brothers Glen and Matt Raymond were struggling to get their car to Western Australia. So Bates, who sold them their old Toyota works car a few years ago, picked it up from Melbourne on his way down from Canberra. The Raymonds went on to win the WA Forest Rally.

''Rallying has always been a friendly sport and everyone is aware of just how fragile everything is at the moment, so everyone is doing their best to help out each other where they can,'' Bates said.

Now in the lead-up to the Rally of Queensland on May 8-10, Bates is hopeful of finding a sponsor. He'll also speak to Windus about continuing his lease in the Corolla for the rest of the series.

''If we had had two bad days in Western Australia, it would have been pretty easy to say well maybe we won't go, but now we will definitely try to make it to Queensland,'' he said.