Mayor’s rally ride ‘far more fun’ than expected
DUNEDIN Mayor Aaron Hawkins will no doubt be feeling a little more comfortable sitting in his reclining, swivelling office chair this morning — far safer than the one he sat in on Saturday when he rode with Kiwi rally star Hayden Paddon at the wheel.
Dunedin’s nondriving, hitchhiking mayor got to ride in Paddon’s new experimental electricpowered rally car during an exhibition circuit at the tarmac super stage of the Otago Rally.
While a ride in a rally car is a whiteknuckle experience for most people, it was petrifying for Mr Hawkins because he has had firsthand experience of what can happen when things go wrong in a car.
He was injured in a serious car accident in 2016 — an incident which still plays heavily on his mind to this day.
‘‘It was Queen’s Birthday weekend and we hit black ice while going full speed on the open road.
‘‘The car rolled a couple of times and then we slammed into a power pole.
‘‘My wife was driving and our 3monthold son was in the back.’’
He said he had to be cut out of the car, and was thankful that he was the only one in the vehicle to receive major injuries.
‘‘I broke my arm. The point of impact with the pole was my elbow, roughly.
‘‘But it could have been far worse than what it was.
‘‘It’s certainly something I think about a lot.
‘‘It’s made me more anxious as a passenger. You don’t forget that in a hurry.’’
He said the prospect of going ‘‘very fast and sideways and around in circles’’ was not appealing, and he only did it because he was being driven by one of the best rally car drivers in the world.
‘‘If it wasn’t for Hayden, I probably wouldn’t have said yes.
‘‘The car is incredibly fast, and how fantastic that this kind of sustainable technology and thinking is being developed right here in Otago.
‘‘It has to be part of the future of the sport.’’
After the ride, he said it was strangely reassuring. It had made him feel a little more comfortable in a car.
‘‘It wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it was going to be. I had a good driver, good conditions — and there was no ice on the track.
‘‘My jaw relaxed over time.’’ It would have been different if he was on one of the gravel road challenges with trees rushing past either side of the car.
‘‘I probably would have been less enthusiastic about that, to be honest.’’
While he had no ambition to get behind the wheel of a rally car, he said the experience had made him think more seriously about driving the family car again.
‘‘It was certainly far more fun than I thought it would be.’’
Hayden Paddon and codriver John Kennard won the Otago Rally by 7 minutes and 32.9 seconds.
TWO punctures were not enough to prevent former WRC driver Hayden Paddon from upping his Otago Rally trophy tally to eight yesterday.
Looking at the final winning margin in the New Zealand Rally Championship, it is hard to imagine that Paddon and codriver John Kennard had to replace two tyres on the Hyundai i20 AP4, as they crossed the finish line 7min 2.9sec ahead of Christchurch’s Josh Marston.
Paddon said although it cost him his preferred clean sweep of the 298km rally’s 14 stages and put paid to the attempt to break his own record in the final Kuri Bush stage, it was enjoyable to be back rallying again with Kennard.
“We clicked like an old glove. John did an awesome job and everything went well as per normal.”
Marston likened himself on Saturday evening to “a computer that needed a reset overnight”.
After his reboot, Marston drove his Holden Barina AP4 hard all day to move up from seventh and set second and thirdfastest stage times throughout yesterday’s seven stages.
“We are there at the end. A few of the other guys broke down and crashed, which is part of rallying and we will take it. Second is realistically the best we could think of with Hayden, who always wins,” he said.
Marston commended Gore codriver Andrew Graves for his efforts.
“He’s a good boy and he does a bloody good job.
‘‘ I just have to watch when he tries to steal the steering wheel,” Marston said, referring to Graves’ notable driving talent.
Third, 2min 04sec behind Marston, was a pleasant surprise for Kaikoura driver Regan Ross, in his first NZRC outing in his Ford
Fiesta R5.
He had Palmerston North’s Katrina Renshaw calling his pace notes and said he had a good run through the last stage, and the car had run faultlessly.
The MSportbuilt Fiesta, from the United Kingdom, was quite different from Ross’ usual charger, a twowheeldrive Ford Escort. Although he vowed to be back in his Escort one day, Ross admitted he had always been curious to see what it was like to drive a toplevel rally car.
Todd Bawden and codriver Paul Burborough, both of Hamilton, proved that consistency and being there at the end of the rally counts for everything, achieving an impressive fourth place in a Mitsubishi Evo 6. The top five was rounded out by Rangiora sibling team Matt and Nicole Summerfield (Mitsubishi Mirage AP4.)
The attrition rate yesterday was unusually high, fewer than half the 114 entries recording finish times for all 14 stages. Among the fallen were many of the frontrunners from Saturday, including promising youngster Robbie Stokes (Ford Fiesta AP4). He was one of the first to drop out — after a surprise third placing following Saturday’s seven stages, Waiuku’s Stokes and codriving sister Amy ground to a halt with a mechanical issue early yesterday.
Andy Martin, of Tauranga, with codriver Matt Hayward, won the allcomers section of the rally in a Subaru Impreza and also finished eighth overall.
The top Otago driver, after Cromwellbased Paddon, was not Dunedin’s Emma Gilmour, who had flashes of brilliance including four topthree stage times before her Suzuki Swift AP4 succumbed to mechanical failures both days. That honour went instead to Duncan McCrostie, of Bannockburn, making a return to rallying after a 10year break.
He leased a Mazda 2 AP4 car and was encouraged enough by his 11th placing overall in the Otago event to enter it in next month’s second NZRC round the International Rally of Whangarei.
Christchurch duo Dylan Thomson and Amy Hudson were the first NZRC 2WD championship drivers in a Ford Fiesta ST150.