Victory for Paddon and Kennard in Queensland

More success for New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon and long-time co-driver John Kennard with the pair taking a strong victory at Rally Queensland, which ran 5 to 6 July near the town of Gympie.

The third round of the 2025 Australian Rally Championship featured 193 competitive kilometres spread across 14 stages, and marked a milestone for the ARC, being its 350th event since its inauguration back in 1968.

With championship points being allocated according to the results on each day of the two-day rally, the fight between the top runners was expected to be intense. Saturday played out as expected with defending ARC champions Harry Bates and Coral Taylor in a tight, day-long battle with Paddon and Kennard, each pairing winning four of the day’s eight stages. Eventually, by day’s end, Bates edged out a 3.7 second lead over Paddon.

Paddon says Sunday’s first stage – which he won by 1.8 seconds over Bates – was a surprise.

“We were expecting wet conditions, and it wasn’t, so we were struggling. Then after Harry had his issue, it was about managing that gap for the rest of the day. The conditions made it difficult to manage tyres and keep a good speed but happy for the whole team that we could get it home and bank maximum points today, and take the rally win.”

The Kiwis won five of the day’s six stages, to end the day 42.5 seconds ahead of Lewis Bates and Anthony Mcloughlin in second place. Paddon and Kennard have each added 90 points to extend their lead on the championship points table.

“We didn’t expect to win this weekend but, once again, the PRG team did an incredible job. It’s nice to build a bit of a lead in the championship but we’re only halfway through and lots of things can happen on each event; it’s pretty unpredictable.”

Paddon says he and Kennard are enjoying the challenges of learning each ARC event. “It can be tough going, when you’re trying to push on an event you’re not familiar with, but that’s why we’re here – to challenge ourselves. Each rally you’ve got to treat on its own merits. The rounds coming up may suit us a bit better, whereas these rougher ones haven’t so much, but it’s all new territory for us and we’re learning at each and every rally we go to.”

After three very busy weeks, there’s now a gap until the fourth ARC round, the Gippsland Rally in Victoria.

Keep up with Hayden Paddon and PRG via the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/paddonracinggroup. 

PRG appreciates the support of their partners including Hyundai New Zealand, Caltex Havoline Oil, Mitre 10 Trade, Winmax Brake Pads, Bar’s Bugs, EROAD, Ben Nevis Station, Wipertech, Design Windows, MITO, Repco, Machinery House, King Gee, KiwiFibre, TrialLite, Hankook, Z Energy, Blaster and Signbiz.