Hayden Paddon and John Kennard hold strong lead in opening day of Gippsland Rally

Hayden Paddon and John Kennard hold a commanding lead in The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally 2025 after a faultless day behind the wheel.

With 10 stages making up day’s itinerary, Paddon and Kennard proved too strong for the rest of the field in trying conditions as the Hyundai i20N pilots almost scored a clean sweep of stage wins to end up more than one minute ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia’s Harry Bates and Coral Taylor.

Finishing the day in third place was Lewis Bates and Anthony McLaughlin – the pair’s 10-second deficit to their teammates setting up an intriguing Sunday afternoon battle.

Throughout the whole day, the top three stayed much the same as Paddon slowly built his lead over Harry, while Lewis remained within close proximity of his brother.

Despite both Toyota drivers piling a ton of pressure on the New Zealander, they had no answer for him as he won nine stages in a row – Lewis pipping him on the final stage by less than one tenth of a second.

Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney comfortably secured fourth for the day a further two minutes off the Bates brothers, while Wolf Production Cup leaders Bodie Reading and Brad Jones rounded out the outright top five for the day more than five minutes off the Hyundai i20N of Rullo and Glenney.

It’s a much closer affair in the battle for WOLF Production Cup honours, as Daniel Traverso and Anthony Carr are less than one minute behind Reading, and 2WD Cup leaders Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell are under two minutes behind.

Although there is a decent buffer between the sixth-placed Mitsubishi Evo Lancer of Traverso and Citroen DS3 of Sullens, there is a significantly smaller gap between the former and the two crews behind him with Stewart Reid and Bella Haggerty six seconds behind and the Toyota GR Yaris of Troy Dowel and Bernie Webb a further four seconds off.

Rounding out the top 10 for the day is another newcomer for the year in Kevin Millard and Patrick Hughes, who sit less than 30 seconds ahead of ARC Junior Cup leader Jackson [Surname] and Damien Long.

The final notable Cup leader at the end of Day 1 was Shane and Sylvie Garner, who were the only 4WD Classic Cup crew to finish the day – Molly Spalding and Matt Dillon hitting a stump during the first loop of stages to end their day prematurely.

Spalding wasn’t the only driver to fall victim to that infamous stump, which has notoriously wreaked havoc on the ARC over the years, as Clayton Hoy and Erin Kelly crashed out on the same spot – the then-WOLF Production Cup leader’s Mitsubishi sustaining big damage, proving too great for them to return on Sunday.

Michael Nicholls and Callan Randall had a scary rollover on the first stage of the afternoon loop, however they were both able to walk away from the incident okay, despite the car sustaining significant damage.