Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have drawn ever so closer to the 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship after taking out Heat 1 of the Copyworld Adelaide Hills Rally.
In what was a dramatic opening day of the South Australian event, Paddon and Kennard claimed an impressive 20 second victory over title rivals Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin, while Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney rounded out the top three almost a minute behind.
The Heat victory extended Paddon and Kennard’s lead at the top of the standings to 81 points over Lewis and McLoughlin who ended the day as the Kiwis’ sole title contenders after fellow Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia teammates Harry Bates and Coral Taylor crashed on SS7 – putting them out for the rest of the afternoon.
Before their incident though, Harry and Taylor were right in contention for Heat 1 having been four seconds behind Paddon and Kennard after six stages and both the Toyota GR Yaris of the reigning champions and the Hyundai i20N of Paddon and Kennard exchanged stage wins in the first half of the day, with both crews grabbing three apiece.
As Harry then crashed out on SS7, it lifted a large amount of pressure on Paddon and Kennard, while Lewis eventually picked up his first stage win of the day.
The Kiwi leaders picked up another win on SS8, but Lewis and McLoughlin managed to find form late in the piece with two consecutive stage wins on SS9 and SS10.
In the end, it wasn’t enough though as Paddon and Kennard took out the 20 second Heat win, while Lewis and McLoughlin comfortably finished ahead of Rullo and Glenney.
“Obviously mission accomplished in the respect of winning Heat 1 and extending the championship lead. But it was a real shame that Harry had his little off road excursion today,’ Paddon said.
“It was obviously a close fight and I think we would have been pushing each other right to the end.
“So, obviously once Harry was on the side of the road, we sort of backed off a bit just to look after tyres. But in saying that, you know, Louis has not been far away as well, so it’s been close.”
Harry and Taylor weren’t the only household names to suffer damage today, with Toby Price and Holly Kilbride having a massive rollover earlier in the day on stage three and ending their event prematurely. Both driver and co-driver were overall okay from the incident, with Kilbride sustaining minor neck injuries as a result.
With Price and Kilbride out for the majority of the day, it allowed WOLF Production Cup leaders Clayton Hoy and Erin Kelly to cruise to the class win by almost a minute over rival Bodie Reading and Brad Jones – the two Production Cup crews finishing fourth and fifth outright respectively.
Remarkably, Reading and Jones held on for the top five finish as Troy Dowel and Bernie Webb fell short by just two seconds after a fast-charging run to the conclusion of their day.
In seventh place was the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 of Peter Rullo and Ben Searcy, who finished just under 25 seconds ahead of stablemates Stuart Reid and Bella Haggerty, while Jackson Long and Damien Long finished in ninth place and took out the Heat victory in the Subaru WRX Challenge.
Rounding out the top 10 was Tony Sillens and Kaylie Newell in their Citroën DS3, the pair also enjoying ARC 2WD Cup honours in the process. Despite their top 10 position, the pair are currently under investigation with a penalty on the cards.
Just missing out on the top 10 was Glenn Brinkmann and Scott Beckwith in their fan-favourite Ford Escort Cosworth RS, however the pair were still able to walk away with an ARC 4WD Classic Cup Heat win by almost 49 seconds.
While Harry and Taylor are set to rejoin the field for Heat 2, Price and Kilbride are officially out of the event with the KickAss Products Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9 sustaining terminal damage.
Timings will restart tomorrow for Heat 2, which will see crews tackle 78.92 competitive kilometres across eight stages, starting from 8:03am ACDT.
Comments