Paddon nails championship with Rally HB win

Racing together since 2006, John Kennard (left) and Hayden Paddon in Napier after Saturday's Rally of Hawke's Bay win. Photo / Doug Laing

National rally championship racing has returned to the east coast of the North Island in style as international driver Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard won the Kennedy Park Resort Rally of Hawke's Bay.

Racing a Hyundai 120 AP4, Paddon just needed to finish to claim a record-equalling fifth national rally championship with one leg remaining in the five-rally series. It was the first Hawke's Bay rally he had driven since 2009, and the first time it had been a part of the championship in a decade.

Starting from Napier at 6.30am on Saturday, competitors covered more than 156km on six special stages on mainly gravelled rural roads in Northern Hawke's Bay. They arrived back in Napier about 4.30pm, with the Cromwell-based team and the Hyundai i20 AP4 in control throughout.

They had a 1min 44sec lead over the second-placed Ford Fiesta APF of North Canterbury brother-and-sister Robbie and Amie Stokes at the Wairoa service stop late-morning and more than doubled it to 3m 56.3s at the end of the last stage.

Third were the first North Island crew home, Raana Horan and Michael O'Connor, of Auckland, racing a Skoda Fabia R5, while there was a creditable drive for seventh from the first Hawke's Bay team; Grant Blackberry and Ric Chalmers in their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X. Defending national champion Ben Hunt, of Auckland, was fourth.

Drivers reported slippery early stages, but there was no rain and conditions dried in the afternoon, with several rating the two stages over Cricklewood Rd some of the best rallying in the country, amid universal excitement at being back in the Bay.

There was thus a strong field of 69, of which 56 finished, Paddon saying soon after the finish at the Mitre 10 car park off Prebensen Dr, Napier, saying he and long-time co-driver Kennard had had no problems during the day.

"It was a good day, no issues, and the whole team did a really good job," Paddon said as he thanked the team of 16 from Central Otago. They were among more than 400 crew and officials in Hawke's Bay for the weekend for the event.

From Geraldine but basing Paddon Rallysport at the Highlands Motorsport Park, Cromwell, 34-year-old Paddon he'd had three drives in the Rally of Hawke's Bay, on much the same roads, but the previous experience there wasn't a feature behind the win. "I don't remember them," he said.

With previous championship wins in 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2018, he joins Masterton driver Richard Mason as the most successful in the history of the national championship. And, having won each of the rallies in this year's series, will claim the first series clean sweep and equal Mason's record for the most individual rally wins should he win the last leg at Coromandel on September 4.

Paddon and Stokes were 1-and-2 on all six stages on Saturday, Stokes bouncing back from earlier mechanical issues which left him with just a luckless DNF from other events starting at the Otago rally in April.

Kennedy Park Resort Rally of Hawke's Bay result: Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 AP4, Cromwell), 1; Robbie Stokes/Amy Stokes (Ford Fiesta AP4, Waikuku), 2; Raana Horan/Michael Connor (Skoda Fabia R5, Auckland), 3; Ben Hunt/Tony Rawstorn (Subaru WRX Sti, Auckland), 4; Todd Bawden/Paul Burborough (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6, Hamilton), 5; Mike Young/Malcolm Read (Subaru GRB Sti, Bay of Plenty), 6; Matt Summerfield/Nicole Summerfield (Mitsubishi Mirage AP4, Rangiora), 7; Grant Blackberry/Ric Chalmers (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X, Hawke's Bay), 8; Quentin Palmer/Noel Moloney (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 5, Taumarunui), 9; Kingsley Jones/Waverley Jones (Skoda Fabia R5, Papakura), 10.