Paddon powers clear in Rally SC
Hayden Paddon cruised to another home win in Rally South Canterbury on Saturday, finishing four minutes clear of the field.
The win was his third straight in the 2022 New Zealand Rally Championship and achieved with a stand-in co-driver, Jared Hudson, who become the youngest round winner in NZRC history.
Paddon, a former World Rally Championship driver was the number one seed driving his Hyundai among the 83 starters over the nine special stages and his victory is his fourth in the past five years, with the 2020 event not held.
‘‘It’s always nice to win at your home rally,’’ Paddon said yesterday.
Paddon, who was raised in Geraldine and started his rallying career in South Canterbury, is now based in Cromwell and Saturday’s event was his last in New Zealand before flying out to Italy today for the Rally di Alba on June 24-25.
He said any day behind the wheel and on the roads, and a
good amount of seat time, is always good and the racing on South Canterbury roads was a bit of a confidence boost before heading to Europe.
Young co-driver Hudson was offered the seat as Paddon’s regular co-driver John Kennard is already in Europe ahead of their first European event in two years.
Paddon said the two hardest stages of the weekend rally for him was Meyers Pass and Waimate forest due to their technical nature.
Along with the pretty frosty conditions, which Paddon said is a staple for the South Canterbury Rally, the day of racing went down well.
Paddon led home Ben Hunt (Skoda Fabia R5), who had to work hard on the final two stages after his buffer was erased with a puncture on stage seven.
Hunt did enough to hold off Matt Summerfield (Mitsubishi Mirage AP4) and Ari Pettigrew (Holden Barina AP4) to give his title chances a significant boost.
Summerfield was awarded the Drive of the Rally after his first podium finish of the season while Pettigrew kept his title chances alive with a second successive podium.
South Canterbury Car Club Rally secretary Howard Atwill said the first couple stages were affected by frost but it mostly only made for a cold morning for spectators, with drivers having minimal problems with ice.
Atwill said out of the 83 cars that started, 66 were deemed as finishers.
‘‘There are a list of reasons why people didn’t finish, but one of the most common reasons was mechanical failure.’’
Punctures were a common theme during the day. ‘‘Some rally’s are just dominated with them I think,’’ he said.
There was only one small incident but the driver and co-driver were okay, Atwill said.
Paddon added the pre-rally events were great and was a great thing for the community.
‘‘It is always great to see the community involved, the kids kart event on Wednesday was great and Friday night seeing everyone for the ceremonial start, the area was packed. It was great to see,’’ he said.
The New Zealand championship heads back to the North Island for next month’s Rally Hawke’s Bay.