Hayden Paddon faces pressure from Ben Hunt in NZ Rally Championship showdown

Hayden Paddon is facing a stiff challenge to win his eighth New Zealand Rally Championship. Photo / Tayler Burke

By missing the first round of the New Zealand Rally Championship at Otago back in April, seven-time national champion Hayden Paddon has opened the door for Ben Hunt to win his third NZRC championship.

Heading into the penultimate round of the national championship Hunt and co-driver Tony Rawstorn hold a narrow 18-point lead over Paddon and his co-driver Jared Hudson (90 points). Hunt will be very keen to get one over his illustrious rival with an overall win.

“Awesome to battle with Hayden again and it’s been going on since 2013,” said Hunt.

“We’ve been second in the New Zealand Rally Championship four times so far, and if we finish second in the championship again, I can think of no better driver to be second to than Hayden.”

However, if he and Rawstorn can finish second to Paddon this weekend, and at the last round at Whangārei in November, he’ll have won the championship. Paddon may be the focus for the 36-year-old, but Robbie Stokes (84 points), Zeal Jones (82) and a resurgent Emma Gilmour (78) are also in with a chance if Paddon falters.

“Being second to Hayden is winning for amateurs,” Hunt said succinctly on the possibility of playing it safe.

It is unlikely Paddon and Hudson will have any mechanical issues as the last DNF in an NZRC round was back in 2017 during Rally Coromandel when he beached the car while leading the rally. Just to put the frighteners up the rest of the field, Paddon is on a 22-rally winning tear that doesn’t look like abating soon.

Paddon may have a more impressive global CV but don’t dismiss Hunt. You don’t win two NZRC titles by just turning up and he and his long-term co-driver Rawstorn have contested 60 NZRC rounds since 2013. In that time have notched up 11 wins and been on the podium a further 26 times, finished championship runner-up four times and won the Gold Star twice.

When Paddon hasn’t been part of the starting grid Hunt has been pretty dominant and now, he has a chance to flip the normal race-finishing narrative and get one over the Cromwell-based racer and get a win this weekend.

Of interest to rallying aficionados will be the progress of youngster Zeal Jones and his co-driver Waverly Jones this weekend. The 19-year-old has already announced his arrival on the rallying scene by getting his first podium finish at the Daybreaker Rally last month.

Jones was also the winner of the 2023 Elite Motorsport Academy as well as representing the Winmax Junior Driver Programme. Topping this impressive start to his rallying career, Jones has been allocated a place in the World Rally Championship (WRC) Challenge Programme initiated by the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team and will head to Japan in late October for a trial at Fuji International Speedway.

Jones will be one of 100 participants taking part, the number which will get whittled down, and if successful he will be given the chance to be part of the team’s generation four drivers’ programme based in Finland.

“I’m excited about this opportunity as it’s the dream gateway to the WRC,” said Jones. “However, I know it is more than just my skill on show, I want to show my overall ability as a driver on and off stage.

“I have been fortunate enough to have an amazing support crew around me as well as my sponsors, who have helped me to this stage in my career.

“I look forward to getting on the plane and giving it my all. I will be using everything I have learned throughout my career, especially the key takeaways from the Elite Motorsport Academy and the Winmax Junior Driver programme as they guide my path to a packaged driver.”

The Battery Town Bay Rally will see 57 entries tackle 12 Special Stages.

Eric Thompson has covered motorsport for the Herald for decades, with an eye on the domestic racing scene and Kiwis abroad.