New Zealand rally star Hayden Paddon set a new record of 51.20 seconds for the short, intense Ashley Forest Rallysprint, which he won for the seventh time on 20 September in his Hyundai i20 AP4++. Sunday’s final attempt saw Paddon beat his earlier record of 52.00 seconds for the 1.7 km hillclimb course which he set in 2023 in the same car.
“Really great to come away with a new record,” says Paddon. “A shame to miss our goal of setting a sub-50 second time this weekend. A few things didn’t fall our way, but we tried.
“The new record is something to show for the huge team effort we’ve put in this weekend. It just means we’ll have to come back for a third attempt at setting a sub-50 time next year. We’ll keep having fun pushing the envelope and seeing what we can develop over the next 12 months.”
The Ratec Motorsport Inc-run club event has attracted hundreds of New Zealand motorsport competitors, including plenty of big names, since it first ran in 1979. The event sees competitors complete three qualifying runs on Saturday, another one on Sunday morning before going into elimination style, knockout rounds for the top 32, top 16, etc through to the top two.
After a minor mechanical issue in the first qualifying run in the Hyundai, Paddon was quickly on the pace setting a 55.53 second time for his second run, getting progressively faster with each attempt at the short uphill/downhill course.
The Paddon Racing Group (PRG) crew ran six cars at this year’s event: two cars for Paddon – the Hyundai and a Group A Impreza, and two cars for Emma Gilmour who finished fifth, one for Steward Reid and a Subaru for Spencer Bourne and Josh Cooper, both of whom had good runs during the earlier qualifying rounds.
Paddon and PRG are supporting Possum Bourne’s 28-year-old son to have a greater involvement in rallying, starting with Ashley Forest, with the goal for Spencer to compete at the 2027 Otago Rally after completing various test days and development work with the team to develop his skills and experience.
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