Paddon wins on return while Stokes pips Hunt for second

Haydon Paddon has made a successful return to the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship after winning Rally South Canterbury on Saturday.

The WRC rally winner showed his class to power his Hyundai New Zealand i20 AP4 to victory by one minute and 43 seconds over Robbie Stokes in his first appearance of the season.

Paddon missed the opening round last month due to a clash with his European commitments and didn’t miss a beat on his return to the domestic scene.

Stokes (Stokes Motorsport Ford Fiesta) and Ben Hunt (Skoda New Zealand Fabia Rally 2) went back and forth at each other all day in a gripping battle before Stokes prevailed by just .3 of a second.

Otago Rally winner Jack Hawkeswood was the big casualty of the day after he slid off the road in his Force Motorsport Toyota GR Yaris and got stuck in the tricky forestry stage that completed the morning loop.

He was able to re-start and secure four points in the power stage to help his championship cause but saw Stokes and Hunt leapfrog him in the standings.

Zeal Jones banked a solid fourth place finish in his Smith & Sons Skoda Fabia R5 to secure some valuable championship points in his first campaign in NZRC 4WD.

Dylan Thomson claimed victory in the NZRC 2WD class despite being unwell. He finished ahead of Tim Mackersy and Jack Stokes – all three in Ford Fiestas.

Dave Strong won the Open 2WD class in his Honda Jazz over Willy Hawes while Paul Fraser (Ford Escort) backed up his class win at Otago to beat Mike Cameron in the Historic 2WD battle.

Dave Sievers (Subaru) inherited the lead from Otago winner Andrew Graves late in the day to win the Rally Challenge 4WD class in his season debut.

Graves had been heading towards a dominant win before a gearbox failure in his Mitsubishi saw him retire on the penultimate stage.

That opened the door for Sievers, who edged Caleb Macdonald (Mitsubishi) by 23 seconds while Carter Strang was third in his Mitsubishi.

Timaru local Darren Galbraith (Ford Fiesta) won the Rally Challenge 2WD class ahead of reigning class champion Jared Parker (Toyota Corolla) and Pat Norris (Toyota Yaris).

The championship heads south for round three next month when the Southern Lights Rally sees Southland appear on the championship for the first time in nearly two decades.