Motorsport: Paddon shows class in Whangarei win

Hayden Paddon. Photo / Michael Cunningham

While all those around him were losing their heads, Kiwi rally exponent Hayden Paddon kept his to win the International Rally of Whangarei at the weekend.

The Pirelli Star Driver, back from Europe to contest the event, showed international class by winning the rally outright for the third time. He finished the day a commanding 3min 55sec over the steadily improving Emma Gilmour and a further 27.8sec up on Aussie Brendan Reeves.

The rally incorporated three championships: the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, the New Zealand Rally Championship and the Pacific Cup.

Although Paddon is not in the running for any of the championships on offer, the kudos and seat-time in winning the Rally of Whangarei will do his European campaign no harm at all.

"It's been a good rally actually so it's very pleasing we've achieved all the goals that we set out to do," said Paddon. "We've just been going at a good, reasonable, comfortable pace and only pushed on a couple of stages. It's been a real good confidence-builder for Finland."

Paddon set his stall out early in the piece on Saturday when he took an aggressive approach in his tyre choice, opting for a soft compound. The decision worked in the damp conditions in the morning stages and he swapped to a medium tyre for the afternoon.

Driving well within himself, Paddon won all bar two of the day's stages to pull into the final time check a handy 1min 10sec ahead of Indian driver Gaurav Gill with Gilmour in third.

Mother nature was at her best on day two of the rally, wreaking havoc with continuous, heavy rain from the get-go. While many struggled with the wet and slippery conditions, Paddon drove sublimely to stay out of trouble and steadily increase his lead over the rest of the 67-car field.

Gill slipped down the table after experiencing gearbox troubles that caused him to be late at a number of checkpoints, while APRC series leader Katsuhiko Taguchi recovered from a fraught Saturday to finish the rally 16th.

Gilmour showed maturity and composure in dealing with the adverse conditions to quietly go about her business to secure a much-deserved second place. She has now moved to within two points of NZRC series leader Dean Sumner, who finished the rally in fifth place.