Paddon and Kennard keep focus for ARC Adelaide rally

Kiwi rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard are staying focused on learning new stages and delivering the best result they can when they contest the Adelaide Hills Rally in their Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car. Running 3 to 5 October in South Australia, this event is the fifth and penultimate round of the 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC).

Paddon says despite leading their respective drivers’ and co-drivers’ championships by 71 points, he and Kennard will take the same approach they always do.

“We’ll push as hard as we can and try to deliver a good result,” says Paddon, who won the Ashley Forest Rallysprint in North Canterbury last weekend in his Hyundai i20 AP4 car. “Until the last round, it’s all about collecting as many points as we can. No one gets to put the championship hat on until the last rally.”

Paddon says he’s heard a lot of good things about this rally. “The stages look a lot smoother and more flowing, similar to New Zealand. That’s where we are comfortable and should work well with our car. We will have a small pre-event test to dial the car in, and use the lessons from the last rally to continue that momentum.

“Like most events this year, many of the stages are the same for the local competitors, but we are enjoying the challenge of pushing ourselves on unfamiliar roads.”

Hosted in the scenic Adelaide Hills regions, around the town of Mt Barker, the rally comprises 18 stages and 160.5 competitive kilometres split across Saturday and Sunday. Local crews have a couple of new stages to learn, while Paddon and Kennard will be competing on all stages for the first time. The Adelaide Hills Rally is the only council/shire road-based event in the 2025 ARC calendar, the other events typically using forestry roads.

Teams can participate on a test stage on Thursday with reconnaissance of all 18 stages on Friday before a rally show in Mt Barker on Friday evening, including the ballot draw for the top three starting positions for Saturday’s Leg 1. Paddon and Kennard are seeded number two, with their closest competitors Harry Bates/Coral Taylor and Lewis Bates/Anthony Mcloughlin seeded first and third respectively.

Like the first three ARC events of the 2025 championship, this is a sprint round where points are available based on finishing position on each day. The standings going into this weekend’s event are Paddon with 366 points, Lewis Bates 295 and Harry Bates 278. The day’s winner earns 50 points and the fastest through the power stage on Sunday a bonus 10 points.

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