Kiwi rally star Hayden Paddon on his way to winning last year’s rally in Whangārei. Paddon will be back to defend his title this weekend.
Kiwi rally star Hayden Paddon on his way to winning last year’s rally in Whangārei. Paddon will be back to defend his title this weekend.
They are two of the biggest names in motorsport and this weekend Northland petrol heads will have the chance to see them both in action when Hayden Paddon and Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen take part in the International Rally of Whangārei.
Paddon and van Gisbergen top the International Rally of Whangārei entry list, with 48 teams entered for the event, which takes place on the streets of Whangārei from May 12-14.
The cars being used range from the latest international specification Rally 2 Hyundai 120N to a 1977 Mitsubishi Lancer. The rally covers 720 kilometres of roads, using 18 special stages of closed road.
It is a qualifying round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), the final round of the Pacific Cup and second round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC).
Top-seeded driver Paddon - the defending champion - and co-driver John Kennard return to New Zealand following a second placing at the weekend’s Rally Islas Canarias, a round of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC). Paddon and Kennard lead the series after two rounds and now change focus to the Whangārei event, which the pair have won seven times.
“Whangārei always has some of the best stages in New Zealand, they’re really cambered and flowing like no other. I think we can expect our New Zealand-based Hyundai i20 N Rally 2 car to perform better on those stages compared to Otago, and hopefully everything we learned about the car in Otago and continued to develop since will help us to extract further performance gains,” Paddon said.
It’s new territory for van Gisbergen though, whose last home event was the Repco Rally New Zealand.
“It’ll be my first time on the Whangārei roads and from what I can see they have a bit of everything,” he said.
Van Gisbergen will drive the Audi S1 AP4 specification car with Australian based co-driver Glen Weston.
Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen will be swapping his Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for an Audi S1 AP4 rally car when he takes part in the International Rally of Whangārei this weekend.
“It looks like a fast but also technical rally. I’m looking forward to the challenge and seeing how we go. I’m in a different car this season, so we will be learning that and looking to improve each rally.”
Seven cars are offshore entries, including the Cusco Toyota C-HR of Michael Young. Others include Eugene Creugent and Pierre-Henri Brunet from New Caledonia, Julien Lenglet and Nelson Law from Vanuatu, and Stewart Reid and Glen Alcorn from Australia.
A total of 11 teams have entered for the APRC category with 35 scoring points for the NZRC. Others are entered in the Allcomers category.
The rally action starts from 1pm Friday with shakedown testing at William Fraser Memorial Park’s Pohe Island. Drivers will then be at the Cameron St Mall from 4.45pm for a signing session ahead of the 5.30pm ceremonial start.
The competitive section begins Saturday morning with four special stage tests to the north of Whangārei. They return from 11.42am for a service stop before repeating the journey in the afternoon. The day concludes with a double run of the Pohe Island 1.15km spectator stage.
Sunday uses four road stage sections to the south - repeated after the 10.39am service break. The remaining teams return for the ceremonial finish at the Pūtahi Park in the Town Basin, Whangārei, from 3pm. There is prize money of NZ$3,000 for the winning APRC entrant, $2,000 for second and $1,000 for third, provided by businessman and promoter Vamcy Merla.
Where to watch the International Rally of Whangārei action:
