Paddon to take WRC car through Kuri Bush

Kiwi rally driver Hayden Paddon is excited by a unique opportunity he’ll get to enjoy during the upcoming Otago Rally, running 4 to 6 April.

Rally organisers have given Paddon permission to contest the iconic Kuri Bush stage in the Hyundai i20 WRC car in which he won the Argentinian round of the FIA World Rally Championship in 2016. This history-making car now resides in New Zealand.

It will be the first time a WRC car has driven the famed 15.05 km rally stage with its fast, cambered lines.

Paddon currently holds both the overall and classics stage records for Kuri Bush. His 2023 time of 7 min, 12.8 sec in his NZRC-winning Hyundai Rally 2 is the overall record with an average speed of 125.18 km/h. Back in 2015, in another BDA, his time for Kuri Bush of 7 min, 52.7 sec has not yet been bettered by any of the international guest drivers who delight Otago Classic Rally fans each year.

Paddon is also competing in the whole rally, driving a BDA in the Otago Classic Rally category where his battle with Irish rally star Kris Meeke is expected to attract plenty of attention.

Driving a BDA, Meeke delivered a dominant and popular win in the 2024 Otago Classic Rally, plus finished seventh overall against the New Zealand Rally Championship competitors. Meeke is quoted as saying during a post-event interview that he would love to compete against Paddon in a matching BDA at a future event.

Paddon missed Otago Rally last year, being busy competing in Rally Hungary to start his successful FIA European Rally Championship defence. He’s looking forward more than ever to return to one of his favourite rallies in the world.

“Firstly, a big thank you to the Otago Rally organisers for allowing this opportunity,” says Paddon. “It’s always been a bucket list thing for me to drive a WRC car on Kuri Bush, one of New Zealand’s most famous and hair raising stages. We hope to put on a good show for the spectators and see what sort of time the car can do, but at the same time we’ll drive with a degree of caution to not take risks and look after this unique and special car.”

Ahead of the event, Rally Otago organisers will confirm approximately when in the running order Paddon and the WRC car will do their timed run through Kuri Bush. As the final stage of 15 for the event, once Paddon has completed Kuri Bush in the BDA, he’ll go back to the stage start to jump in the 2016 WRC car for this special, one-off run through this iconic gravel rally stage.

The 2025 Central Machine Hire Otago Rally begins with the popular ceremonial start in Dunedin’s Octagon on Friday, April 4, before the rally action itself takes place to the north and southwest of Dunedin on the following two days over 15 stages and 280 competitive kilometres.

PRG appreciates the support of their partners including Hyundai New Zealand, Caltex Havoline Oil, Mitre 10 Trade, Winmax Brake Pads, Bar’s Bugs, EROAD, Ben Nevis Station, Wipertech, Design Windows, MITO, Repco, Machinery House, King Gee, KiwiFibre and Trial Lite.

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