Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have moved one step nearer to the EROAD Australian Rally Championship title, following an impressive win at The Middle of Everywhere Gippsland Rally.
Marking three consecutive ARC victories for 2025, Paddon and Kennard guided their Hyundai i20N to a 1:07-second win over Harry Bates and Coral Taylor, while Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin rounded out the podium a further 35 seconds off.
Paddon and Kennard went into Sunday’s 10 stages with a minute-plus lead, following faultless stage performances the day before.
Paddon stated the weekend was one of the best of his three most recent wins, performing more at the level he thinks he is capable of in the rally car.
“It’s been a good week and we got everything out of it that we needed to so it was perfect,” Paddon said.
“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. 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.”
It was a different story during yesterday’s opening four stages, with both Paddon and Bates exchanging stage wins, but 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 Bates each picked up stage wins – Paddon grabbing the ever-important Power Stage victory which gave him maximum bonus points towards his overall points total.
Finishing the day in fourth place just under three minutes off the second Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 of Bates 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, holding off a fast-charging Troy Dowel and Bernie Webb.
Dowel started the day more than a minute off the Subaru, after a challenging Saturday, but did his best to secure the top five finish/
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.
Sullens and Newell ended the weekend with the ARC 2WD Cup victory, while teenager 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, with the husband-wife pairing finishing as the sole Classic 4WD Cup finishers following the retirement of Molly Spalding and Matt Dillon on Saturday.
The EROAD Australian Rally Championship heads towards the penultimate round of the 2025 season in South Australia, with the Copyworld Adelaide Hills Rally taking place on 4-6 October.
View the full results via the Subaru Results Hub.
