KEY POINTS:
Cantabrian Hayden Paddon has clinched the New Zealand Rally Championship with one event to go.
The first two days of the Hamilton-based Rally New Zealand counted as the championship's penultimate round, and Paddon, 21, finished runner-up with co-driver John Kennard to take an unassailable lead on the points table.
"It's absolutely fantastic," the Mitsubishi driver said.
"It hasn't really sunk in actually. We had a three-year plan to win it and we've done it."
Wairarapa's Richard Mason, a two-time national champion, won the round the climb to second in the standings.
The national series concludes with the Rally of Nelson at the end of next month.
Meanwhile, with one day to go in Rally NZ, Mason is on target in his bid to be the first New Zealander home for the third successive year.
Mason, 30, is 12th overall, eight minutes 25.3 seconds behind Finnish leader Jari-Matti Latvala.
Even more notable is that his Subaru, in which wife Sara is co-driver, is the leading Group N car in the field.
Paddon is second in the battle to be top local at 17th overall, but needs to make up more than three minutes on Mason over the five remaining stages.
- NZPA
