Motorsport: Paddon wins Otago rally

New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Hayden Paddon today secured a comprehensive win in the Rally of Otago, the opening round of the New Zealand rally championship.

Paddon took an early lead in the dark of Friday evening and, 270km later, held on to eventually cross the finish ramp first at Dunedin's railway station on Sunday afternoon.

After 15 special stages, Paddon finished one minute 36.9 seconds ahead of defending champion Dean Sumner (Rotorua), who put in a strong performance on the final 47km special stage to reduce Paddon's advantage.

Sumner, in a Mitsubishi, was in an earlier battle with Dunedin local and Subaru driver Emma Gilmour, before an off-road excursion dropped her down the order mid-morning.

Former champion Chris West (Timaru) was third, edging out another former champion in Richard Mason.

While Paddon relinquished some of his overnight Saturday lead, his pace kept him at the head of the day's standings to collect a maximum haul of 128 points, to Sumner's 108 and West's 89.

"It's a great result for the team - definitely," Paddon said. "There were a lot of unknowns coming to an event we know well but with a car we'd never used here.

"So it's been a bit of a rush and we haven't quite got it doing what we want right yet, but already we've got good speed."

Gilmour had made a fine start, securing second spot after Friday night's three night-time special stages.

She continued to run strongly when the rally resumed on Saturday, holding second place behind Paddon until a spin-and-stall on the penultimate stage of the day dropped her to third.

The Dunedin-based driver started Sunday's stages determined to challenge for victory on leg two of the event, but a small error on the third stage of the day cost her dearly.

"We clipped the inside of a bank, and that in turn sent the car sliding off on the other side of the road where it ended up tangled up in a fence," Gilmour said.

She completed the stage with a right-rear puncture, serious rear suspension damage, and several metres of fencing wire trailing behind. Time lost limping to the end of the stage dropped her back a minute behind the front-runners, and Gilmour then had no choice but to incur further time penalties as she limped on to the post-stage service area.

The series now continues with the second of five rounds being based at Hampton Downs on May 7-8. It then moves to Rally Wairarapa on May 28-29, the International Rally of Whangarei (July 15-17) and Rally Hawke's Bay on August 20-21.

- NZPA