Paddon and Kennard edge closer to Australian Rally title with Adelaide win

Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard have taken another step toward their first Australian Rally Championship (ARC) crown, dominating the Adelaide Hills Rally over the weekend.

The Kiwi pairing were in top form across both days of the South Australian event on the weekend, collecting a full haul of championship points. The result extends their lead at the top of the standings to 470 points which is 85 clear of nearest rivals Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin. There is just one round remaining in Tasmania next month.

“All in all, a pretty good weekend,” says Paddon. “It’s always about managing things, trying to build a gap in the mornings on the first loop, then manage things like tyres in the afternoons. A weekend of management is what I’ve called this one in terms of tyres and strategy, and we did what we needed to do to secure the win.”

Saturday’s competition on the rolling roads through the Adelaide Hills saw Paddon and Harry Bates take three stage wins apiece in the first six stages, with Paddon holding the lead by just 4.4 seconds. Then, Harry crashed out of the first of four early evening stages. Paddon took one more stage win while Lewis Bates took the other three to finish the day 20.7 seconds adrift of Paddon.

Read more – Australian Rally Championship

“Obviously mission accomplished in the respect of winning Heat 1 and extending the championship lead, but it was a real shame that Harry had his little off road excursion today,” Paddon said. “It was obviously a close fight, and I think we would have been pushing each other right to the end. With Harry on the side of the road, we sort of backed off a bit in the evening just to look after tyres. But in saying that, Louis has not been far away all day as well, so it’s close.”
Sunday’s itinerary featured eight stages, with Paddon winning five to secure another heat win, 31.6 seconds ahead of Lewis Bates who secured maximum bonus points by winning the power stage. Fellow Hyundai driver Alex Rullo took third place in both heats.

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Of Sunday’s stages, Paddon said: “Every time we go to new stages, we seem to find a bit more performance, so we always said that the 15km stage (SS12 and SS14) was our target and winning that one really did the damage (in terms of tyres) for us.

“It’s a very fast stage where I think everyone was in tyre management mode, including Clayton Hoy who won. When rallies are like this and require a lot of strategy, it brings in a lot of unknowns, and that’s good for everyone and good for the sport.”

The Adelaide Hills Rally was the fifth round of the ARC’s six round championship which will conclude in Tasmania in early November.

“Being 85 points in front isn’t really a position you like to be in. I’d have preferred to either be closer or have the title wrapped up, because then you can go to Tassie and just push. But now, being in this position, we have to finish seventh or better. You’ll probably hear every little rattle and bang in the car all weekend. It makes it a lot more stressful than it probably should be.”