Paddon makes immediate ARC impact

Kiwi star Hayden Paddon has put the Australian Rally Championship field on notice by taking the opening heat in Canberra as rivals found trouble.

Paddon and John Kennard in the Hyundai i20N enjoyed a comfortable 30s win over Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin in the Toyota.

Despite opening his ARC campaign on top, Paddon said it was not a perfect day.

“It hasn’t been an easy day for us for sure but obviously we got the result so, that’s pleasing. We certainly had to work for it this morning,” Paddon said.

“A few things sort of went against us. This afternoon, it sort of started to come back and the feeling was good but, obviously, as we can see, the pace is hot over here, so we’re looking forward to the challenge, which I’m sure is going to be all season long.

“That’s one day down. And there is obviously still another day to go. Tomorrow is very different in terms of the conditions and everything again.

“We start from scratch and reset and hopefully we can pick up where we left off this afternoon.

“I probably prefer tomorrow’s stages. it’s just a little bit easier to read and sort of gauge the conditions a little bit, but still challenging. In the end, we learned some stuff today with ourselves and the pace is in the car, so I’m sure we can take that forward to tomorrow.”

It was a dramatic day with big names Scott Pedder and defending champion Harry Bates finding trouble.

After dominating the opening stage, the reigning champion and co-driver Coral Taylor hit a concrete drain in the second stage that forced their Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia GR Yaris Rally 2 to lose a wheel and miss the rest of the day.

This vaulted Pedder and Glenn Macneall into the lead and they were flying, taking back to back stage wins.

However, a puncture in the morning’s final stage saw the Skoda Fabia Rally2 crew lose a minute.

Despite being in the overall lead, it was not until Stage 5 when Paddon and Kennard finally took a stage win.

But the former WRC Kiwi then did not look backing, winning the next three stages to open up a 35s advantage over Lewis Bates before he won the finale.

A further 30s behind is  Alex Rullo and Steve Glenney, who were highly consistent across the day.

Youngster Josh Wiedman and new co-driver KJ Miller completed the top five in impressive fashion.

Jackson and Damian Long won ARC Junior Cup and finished 9th overall.

Not only was Wiedman’s good driving rewarded with an outright top five finish, but it also secured him WOLF Production Cup honours.

Andrew Penny and co-driver Rhys Llewellyn claimed the ARC 4WD Classic Cup.

The Rally of Canberra will be decided tomorrow.

Image: Peter Norton Epic sports Photography

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