By Kate Gordon-Smith. Photo by Mark Walton.

Kiwi rally ace Hayden Paddon ticked off his key goals at this year’s International Rally of Whangarei in early May – taking the outright win, maximum points towards the Pacific Cup component of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship, and setting new time records on more than 80 percent of the event’s special stages. 

With new co-driver Samantha Gray calling the pace notes on a rally Paddon has now won five times,  the pair won by over four minutes from second-placed Ben Hunt and Tony Rawstorn, the New Zealand Rally Championship field winners.

“It was a good weekend and we achieved everything we wanted to,” said Paddon who finished four minutes, 40.8 seconds ahead of his closest APRC competitor David Holder. 

“A few small technical things gave the team – with John Kennard as our team manager this weekend – some things to work on and held us back a little, but like always, they did an amazing job keeping the car going in stage record-setting form.

“Not a perfect weekend but we achieved the desired result; we got the stage records we wanted, so in that respect we hit our objectives.”

Paddon was also delighted to extend his lead in the FIA Pacific Cup. 

“This is one of our priorities this year, so it’s good to progress that. Now we must see how the Australian APRC rounds pan out. We are considering going to the second Australian round towards the end of August and are looking at all the options and opportunities in terms of a Hyundai to use there. 

“Currently, however, we’re in the best possible position, having scored two wins and maximum Pacific Cup points from the two New Zealand rounds.”

Next up on Paddon’s competition calendar is the South Canterbury Rally on 22 June before he flies out to France Europe for his first Global Rallycross Europe event on 29 June.