Hayden Paddon and John Kennard claim victory at 2025 Australian Rally Championship

Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have claimed victory at the 2025 Australian Rally Championship, becoming the second all-New Zealand pairing to do so. 

After winning four of the five rounds leading up to the Tasmanian finale, the duo were 85 points clear of the pack. 

To claim overall victory, Paddon and Kenard needed to place 12th or better, and ended up finishing 3rd.

While this might sound like an easy victory on paper, adverse weather conditions and a broken damper on the rally’s longest stage caused a fair bit of drama.

“We’re really happy to get the result over the line,” says Paddon. “There was a lot of pressure this weekend just to finish. Performance wasn’t really an aspect we needed to push for and it’s always a bit more nerve wracking when it’s like that. Things that can happen that are outside your control, which almost did happen with a broken damper this afternoon and losing a bit of time as we nursed the car home. In the end, we got home in P3 which, in some ways, is almost irrelevant.

“It’s great to bring home the result and win the championship. It’s great to do this for the whole team. Everyone’s put in a lot of work this year.

“To put our name alongside our hero Possum Bourne feels somewhat surreal. It’s very, very cool, and something the whole team can be very proud of, especially being on the road and travelling around Australia and doing it all on what’s pretty much a shoestring budget.

“We’ve really loved our time here in the Australian Championship: the comradery, how we’ve been welcomed, the competition levels have been really, really great. We’ve loved it, and this is a great way to finish off the season.”