By Kate Gordon-Smith. Photos by Mark Walton.
Kiwi rally ace Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard completed a near perfect two days of rallying in and around Dunedin in their Hyundai i20 AP4 over the April 13-14 weekend, winning Rally Otago outright and getting their FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship campaign off to the ideal start with maximum points.
Paddon, from Cromwell, and Kennard, from Blenheim, won the Otago event for the sixth time after two days and 280 km of competition. The pair also won and set new stage records for 14 of the rally’s 15 special stages.
Their total time for the 15 stages was over seven minutes faster than second-placed Subaru pair Ben Hunt and Tony Rawstorn, who won the New Zealand Rally Championship category (Paddon has elected not to enter the NZRC this year, opting to focus on the APRC category and not potentially impact the available points for other NZRC contenders).
“It’s been a good rally for us,” said Paddon on Sunday. “(We had) a couple of minor issues with the car yesterday morning and the puncture on the super special stage on Saturday afternoon, but today everything went well. The team did an amazing job with the car. We have a few new guys on the rally crew for the first time who are part of our new operation in Cromwell. They did an amazing job, really enthusiastic and learnt a lot. We’re quite a young team now, with several new people, so it’s really promising for what we have coming up in the future that everything worked so well this weekend.”
Taking maximum points in the FIA APRC category in Otago ticks off another goal for Paddon’s first rally of 2019. “Yes, it’s a nice bonus as we head to Whangarei next. We can assess where we’re at, championship-wise, after Whangarei.”
The International Rally of Whangarei, over the May 04-05 weekend, is New Zealand’s second APRC round, and also counts as one of the four Pacific Cup events.
Paddon is targeting the Pacific Cup, which includes two rounds in Australia, in June and August, which also gives him a chance to qualify for the APRC final in China at the end of the year.
2019 International Rally Otago
1. Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 AP4) 2:25:54.3
2. Ben Hunt/Tony Rawstorn (Subaru Impreza WRX) +7:16.9
3. Dylan Turner/Malcolm Read (Audi AP4) +8:25.0
4. Phil Campbell/Malcolm Peden (Ford Fiesta AP4) +11:57.2
5. Andrew Hawkeswood/Jeff Cress (Mazda 2 AP4) +15:25.6
6. Josh Marston/Andrew Graves (Holden Barina AP4) +16:11.4
7. Mads Ostberg/Torstein Eriksen (Ford Escort RS1800) +16:37.7
8. Matt & Nicole Summerfield (Mitsubishi Mirage AP4) +17:15.3
9. Marcus van Klink/Dave Neill (Mazda RX8) +17:47.3
10. Derek Ayson/Nikita Gibson (Ford Escort Mk2) 2:44:25.8
