New Zealand superstars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have claimed their maiden EROAD Australian Rally Championship victory after taking out Heat 2 of the Forest Rally
Following their entertaining Heat 1 victory on Saturday, Paddon and Kennard ended up topping the standings at the completion of Sunday’s six stages by just five seconds over Harry Bates and Coral Taylor, giving them the outright victory overall.
Finishing in second place for the weekend was Bates and Taylor as a result of their Sunday efforts, while ARC debutants Tom Kristensson and Andreas Johansson rounded out the overall podium after finishing Heat 2 in third place.
Kristensson and Johansson actually finished the weekend overall on equal points with ARC Championship leader Lewis Bates, however the Swedes ended up on the podium courtesy of countback where they had a better time for the weekend overall.
Remarkably, the battle for Heat 2 honours between the trio went down to the Power Stage as Paddon finished ahead of both Bates and Kristensson by a few seconds to sew up both the Heat and the victory, while Bates edged out Kristensson on the stage to score second overall.
Although Paddon’s victory was highly deserved, the Kiwi was aided by the major incident on the day’s first loop of stages where Heat 1 runner-up placegetters Scott Pedder and Glenn Macneall endured a minor crash on Stage 9, which was big enough to ruin their rally.
The pair were occupying second place at the time of the incident, and although they managed to get the car back in time for the remaining three stages, any hope of winning the rally, and moving into the championship lead overall were dashed.
On the bright side for the 2014 champion, his return to the rally saw him eligible for the Power Stage, where he managed to steer the Skoda Fabia RS Rally 2 to second and earn ever-important bonus points.
Earlier in the day, it was Kristensson who once again proved his incredible talent early on to win the opening stage before consecutive stage wins for Harry and Taylor saw the reigning champions slot into top spot either side of the midday service.
Paddon responded with a big win on the penultimate stage before sealing the victory on the Power Stage.
“This weekend probably hasn’t gone quite well our way today,” Paddon said.
“The morning loops both yesterday and today we struggled on, but both afternoons felt really good.
“To be honest, I am loving the battle right now. I had to push right down to the last stage – both yesterday with Scott, and today with Harry and we love that part of the rally and are enjoying that aspect.
“When you’ve got to fight for a win, it is always a bit more satisfying. Similar to the feeling we had doing the European Championship where we had to be pushed on every stage.
“This morning we dropped too much time. Scott probably had it in the bag, but unfortunately for him he had that crash, which didn’t open up a three way battle.
“As for this afternoon, it was just a different rally for us. The car worked in these conditions, which made it easy to push.”
In the Cups, Clayton Hoy and Erin Kelly secured a clean sweep of stage wins on Sunday to complete a dominant weekend for the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6 drivers, claiming overall WOLF Production Cup winners over Heat 1 runner-up placegetters Nicholas Box and Caleb Ash and the second placed Heat 2 crew of Timothy Hiles and Noah Humble.
Although Box and Hiles both missed out on the WOLF Production Cup victory, they ended the weekend with Cup victories of their own – Box guiding his Nissan Silvia – C2 to the ARC 2WD Classic Cup win and Hiles grabbing the 4WD Cup victory in his Subaru Legacy – P5.
Aussie international Dakar star Toby Price marked his ARC debut on a high by claiming both heats of the Subaru WRX Challenge to comfortably win the class overall, while Garry Mills and Shaun McMaken were deemed the overall winners for the ARC 2WD Cup on countback despite failing to finish Sunday’s heat.
Rounding out the Cup results was young gun Jackson Long, who took out the ARC Junior Cup victory alongside father Damien.
View the full results for the weekend via the Subaru Results Hub.
The 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship continues in July with the Accent Benchtops Rally Queensland in Ipswich on 4-6 July.
