Paddon’s Aussie adventure off to bumpy start

Kiwi rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard worked hard to win the first day of the Rally of Canberra on 22 March in their Hyundai i20N Rally2 car. However, coming across a mob of kangaroo at high speed on the opening stage of day two took the pair out of contention for the overall win.

Paddon and Kennard, from Cromwell and Blenheim respectively, are competing in the 2025 Australian Rally Championship for the first time. The six-round championship kicked off on 21 March with a well-attended rally show in Canberra before crews headed for high speed forestry roads west of the city for the first day’s action. The second day’s special stages were all to the east, with about 223 km of competitive action in total for the ARC’s opening round.

An interesting feature of the ARC is that the top three seeded drivers participate in a ballot to determine their running order for both days. Rally of Canberra is one of the sprint rounds which means competitors can earn points each day depending on their classification for that day.

“We drew number one in the road position ballot which put us slightly on the back foot from the outset,” says Paddon. “Having to sweep the roads combined with me making the wrong choice of tyres yesterday morning meant we were struggling a bit for speed against local competitors who set a hot pace.”

Paddon and Kennard finished Saturday morning’s four stages with a narrow lead overall of 11.6 seconds to Lewis Bates, with defending ARC champion Harry Bates temporarily out of the overall running following an offroad incident.

“Once we corrected the tyres for the afternoon loop, the car was much better and we were able to be back on stage winning pace,” says Paddon who recorded his first three stage wins of his debut ARC season and ended the day 29.7 seconds ahead of Lewis Bates. “To win the day yesterday was a good bonus considering it wasn’t our best performance. We were pleased to get a solid result and start the championship banking some points by winning the first day.”

However the second day in Canberra didn’t go to plan for Paddon.

“We encountered a mob of kangaroos on Sunday morning’s first stage. At 160km/h over a crest, there was absolutely nothing we could do to avoid one of them in the middle of the road. We’re okay, the car is repairable, but we weren’t able to rejoin for later in the day to try and recoup some points on the final, double-points power stage as the rules state you must compete 65 per cent of the day to be classified as a finisher and claim any points. It’s just one of those unfortunate things that sometimes happens in motorsport. We have to take it on the chin, reset, and go again for the next round which is in Western Australia in May.”

Kiwi fans can follow Paddon and Kennard during all six ARC events thanks to the championship organisers providing a mix of on-stage action, interviews and analysis via live streams broadcast on the ARC’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

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 TrialLite.

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