Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have edged ever-so closer to the EROAD Australian Rally Championship title after taking out The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally.
In what was their third consecutive ARC victory for season 2025, Paddon and Kennard ended up guiding their Hyundai i20N to a one minute and seven second win over Harry Bates and Coral Taylor, while Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin rounded out the podium a further 35 seconds off.
“This weekend was probably the best one of the three wins in terms of feeling a little bit more of the normal performance that we would expect of myself,” Paddon said. “It’s been a good week and we got everything out of it that we needed to so it was perfect.”
Paddon and Kennard went into Sunday’s 10 stages with a solid lead of more than a minute following an almost faultless performance yesterday, having only lost a stage at the end of the day – Lewis Bates’ Stage 10 win putting him just seconds behind Harry.
It was a different story during Sunday’s opening four stages with both Paddon and Harry exchanging stage wins, however the latter was unable to rein in the leader at the midday service.
That trend continued in the weekend’s final stages as both Paddon and Harry each picked up stage wins – Paddon grabbing the ever-important Power Stage victory which gave him maximum bonus points towards his overall pointscore, while Harry and Lewis ended up second and third in the EZIUP Power Stage.
“After the first loop, we probably built a bigger gap than what we were expecting and then the night it was just about maintaining it,” said Paddon. “So, coming into today with a minute lead, it was really about just being smart, doing nothing stupid and then obviously try to get the Power Stage Win.
“The result is very good for the title. The way the point structure is in the championship, it won’t be done until the last rally. So, you can’t even relax or take it for granted. We just have to keep pushing and getting as many points as we can.”
Finishing the day in fourth place just under three minutes off the second Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 of Lewis was Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney after the IntelliSpatial Fleetcare Racing Hyundai i20 N pair ended up fourth in all but one stage across the weekend.
Rounding out the top five for the event was Bodie Reading and Brad Jones in the Les Walkden Rallying Subaru Impreza WRX, who ended up holding onto the top five finish from a fast-charging Troy Dowel and Bernie Webb – the third Toyota GR Yaris making up a lot of time to Sunday.
Dowel started today more than a minute off the Subaru after a challenging Saturday, but did his best to secure that top five finish – the two young guns eventually separated by just 14 seconds at the conclusion of the event.
In addition to their outright fifth place, Reading also managed to secure the WOLF Production Cup victory, comfortably beating Victorian Danny Traverso and Anthony Carr by around one and a half minutes, while Tony Sullens and Kaylie Newell picked up third place for the class a further two minutes.
Both Traverso and Carr also scored outright top 10 finishes with eighth and ninth respectively, finishing less than a minute behind the seventh placed Stewart Reid and Bella Haggerty in their Mitsubishi Mirage.
Sullens and Newell also ended the weekend with the ARC 2WD Cup victory, while teenage sensation Jackson Long claimed top honours in the ARC Junior Cup alongside co-driver Damian Long – the father-son duo rounding out the outright top 10.
The final Cup winner for the event was Shane and Silvie Garner after the husband-wife pairing ended up as the sole Classic 4WD Cup finishers following the retirement of Molly Spalding and Matt Dillon.
Spalding and Dillon were just one of a handful of crews to retire on a drama-filled Saturday, with Sunday’s action proving far more straightforward with no major incidents occurring throughout today.
The EROAD Australian Rally Championship now looks towards the penultimate round of the 2025 season in South Australia, with the Copyworld Adelaide Hills Rally taking place on 4-6 October.
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