By Kate Gordon-Smith. Photos courtesy HPRG.
On his way to winning this year’s event outright, Kiwi rally star Hayden Paddon shattered the Ashley Forest Rallysprint record not once but twice, using a modified version of his Hyundai AP4++ to leave it at just 52.77 seconds.
First run in 1979 by Canterbury’s RATEC Motorsport Club, the 1.7-km North Canterbury hill climb attracts an array of local, national and international competitors. The previous record of 54.96 seconds was set by Sloan Cox on his way to winning the 2017 event and prior to that, the record of 56.57 seconds set by the late Kim Austin stood for 17 years. Last year’s title went to Australia-based Scotsman Alister McRae in a car once rallied by Kiwi rally legend Possum Bourne.
The short, intense gravel hill climb is an event close to Paddon’s heart. He watched it on TV as a child, first contested it at the age of 14 and won it on his second attempt in 2011 with a time of 57.16 seconds.
“It’s nice to get it over the line and it’s quite a relief in some ways,” said Paddon after breaking the record for the first time on Sunday morning and going on to set another new record and win the event on his final run on Sunday afternoon.
“With the amount of work and obstacles thrown at us during the week up to the event, it’s quite amazing it’s turned out like this. It’s been a huge commitment from the team with the amount of work that’s gone in this week, so it’s very cool to break the record – that was our main goal.”
The non-delivery of a part for the engine that Paddon Rallysport intended to run in the Hyundai AP4++ was a curved ball.
“We weren’t able to use the 800hp engine we were planning to use for this event, and in the end had to run a 500hp option so we were a bit up against it. But in some ways, it was really nice because we had to try and find other ways to gain time. The whole team absolutely pulled together and never gave up, and we got the desired outcome in the end.”
Paddon’s main goal was to break the Ashley Forest record held by Sloan Cox. Now he has he has set its heart on going even quicker.
“To be honest, I didn’t think it was going to be possible after yesterday.
“If we can get the engine package right for the future, there’s still unfinished business to come back and lower that time even further.
“Could we break 50 seconds? It’s a massive challenge and probably some kind of an engineering phenomenon as the margins get smaller and smaller, the faster you go. I know there’s a little more time in our last run today so you take that into the equation and a few other things, it could be possible, but obviously not easy!”
Hayden Paddon appreciates the support of Hyundai New Zealand, YES Power, Ben Nevis Station, Cusco, Winmax Brakes, GoPro, Smith Seeds, Pakn’Save and Z Energy.
