Motorsport: Paddon builds convincing lead

Hayden Paddon led on day one of Rally New Zealand. Photo / Euan Cameron

Hayden Paddon established a convincing lead over Richard Mason and a close-chasing pack after the first day of Rally New Zealand.

As top seed for the two-day rally, Paddon led from the first stage, and ended the day with a leading margin of two minutes, 17.3 seconds.

The Geraldine-based Subaru driver, who has just turned 24, was nearly 13 seconds faster through the opening 32.3km Te Akau stage than former New Zealand rally champion Chris West (Christchurch).

With each competitive stage, Paddon - a two-time New Zealand rally champion - added to his leading margin, winning six of the day's eight stages.

Mason, from Masterton and driving another Subaru, finished the day second, just 10.4 seconds ahead of Dunedin's Emma Gilmour. This pair, along with West and defending champion Dean Sumner (Taupo) had an intensely competitive day, swapping positions on the leader-board behind Paddon. Gilmour held second until the day's final super special stage, but a fuel surge meant the Subaru driver lost some time and allowed Mason to regain the runner-up position.

Paddon said he and co-driver John Kennard had a really good day.

"It's fantastic to be in the lead and great to know all the testing we've done with the car in recent days has worked."

With another six stages to run on Sunday, including the iconic Whaanga Coast stage, Paddon acknowledges it's another big day of competition.

"The road conditions should be very similar to today - wet on the road, but fine. However a bit of rain could help us at the front. We're in a really good position from here."

Mason, a back-to-back rally champion, said the day was somewhat up and down.

"I didn't make the best choice with tyres in the morning, but was happier with the option we ran this afternoon. We're a lot closer now and are very happy with the car so we'll keep things as they are and push on tomorrow."

The honour of winning the other two stages - both the super special stages at Hampton Downs - went to New Plymouth driver Neil Marshall, who is known as a tarmac specialist.

Competitors are required to run regular gravel-spec tyres on their rally cars for the high-speed tarmac sprint around nearly two laps of the Hampton circuit. Marshall set two new records for fastest New Zealander on the Hampton special stage on each of his runs, with the Group N Mitsubishi driver ending Saturday with a very quick time of two minutes 46.7 seconds for the 4.68km stage.

The top five competitors overall - Paddon, Mason, Gilmour, Sumner and West - are also the top contenders in the New Zealand Rally Championship standings.

Saturday's action also involved competitors in the Possum Bourne Memorial Rally, with Aucklander Kingsley Jones running strongly all day to win the Possum Bourne Memorial Trophy for the first time. Jones also finished the day ninth overall.

The rally continues on Sunday with six stages taking competitors to Raglan and Whaanga Coast before returning to Hampton Downs Motorsport Park for the final super special stage.

- NZPA