![\"\u2018For](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/7b8160d9-6fbd-4e0d-bed3-66a761a0da53.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHayden Paddon and John Kennard celebrate winning the 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship. Image: Tayler Burke<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHayden Paddon and John Kennard celebrate winning the 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship. Image: Tayler Burke<\/p>\n
Paddon and Kennard survived a late scare on the penultimate stage of the rally when the left front shock on their Rally2-spec Hyundai i20 N failed.<\/p>\n
They had been just 12 seconds behind rally leaders Harry Bates and Coral Taylor after SS12 but dropped back nearly three and a half minutes by SS13 as they limped to the finish.<\/p>\n
All told, Paddon was third and nearly four minutes off rally winners Bates and Taylor by the end of SS14 \u2013 enough to secure the title.<\/p>\n
Lewis Bates and Anthony McLoughlin were second in the rally and second in the championship.<\/p>\n
Paddon came into the final round of the Australian Rally Championship as the favourite with an 85-point lead over Lewis Bates and only 100 points on offer.<\/p>\n
Still, the Kiwi needed to finish the rally to take the title.<\/p>\n
At the end of the final stage, Paddon paid tribute to countryman Possum Bourne.<\/p>\n
Bourne won the Australian Rally Championship on seven occasions with Subaru and was a stalwart of the scene throughout the 1990s and 2000s until his untimely death in 2003.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s title is Paddon\u2019s first in the Australian Rally Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably the slowest way we\u2019ve ever won a championship, just nursing the car through,\u201d said Paddon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did what we had to do. Obviously this was the goal for the whole year. The work that the team and everything they\u2019ve done away from home, I couldn\u2019t do it without them all.<\/p>\n
\u201cHasn\u2019t been the best way to finish it, but anyway, we did all the hard work throughout the year. Just a huge credit to everyone that\u2019s helped us and supported us, John in the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, a lot of this is for Possum [Bourne]. He was my inspiration over the last couple of years to keep going, to come over and do something where he dominated is quite cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve loved it over here. Everyone\u2019s been so welcoming. The rally brings new challenges for us and great competition with the Bates brothers, Scott [Pedder] and Alex [Rullo].<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve loved it in all respects. We\u2019ve done it on a shoestring budget, despite what others might think. It\u2019s been done on a pretty tight budget. Pretty cool to tick it off the list.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something to add to John and my CV with everything we do around the world. It\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paddon was greeted at the finish line by a throng of fans from New Zealand, there to celebrate the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so lucky to have so much support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same wherever we go around the world. Across the ditch, it\u2019s great the Kiwis have embraced this championship as well. Who knows what\u2019s next?\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about continuing in the championship into 2026, Paddon was non-committal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old girl needs a bit of money spent on her now, so we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Results: Australian Rally Championship, Rally Tasmania (top 10)<\/p>\n
Pos
\nDriver
\nCo-Driver
\nMake\/Model
\nTime\/Diff<\/p>\n
1
\nH Bates
\nTaylor
\nToyota GR Yaris
\n1:58:33<\/p>\n
2
\nL Bates
\nMcLoughlin
\nToyota GR Yaris
\n55.6<\/p>\n
3
\nPaddon
\nKennard
\nHyundai i20N
\n3:56.3<\/p>\n
4
\nDalton
\nKeirans
\nToyota GR Yaris AP4
\n7:50.7<\/p>\n
5
\nGilmour
\nSearcy
\nSkoda Fabia R5
\n10:37.7<\/p>\n
6
\nReading
\nJones
\nSubaru WRX STI
\n11:12.<\/p>\n
7
\nJ Long
\nD Long
\nSubaru WRX
\n16:40.3<\/p>\n
8
\nNewman
\nKudra
\nSubaru WRX STI
\n18:14.8<\/p>\n
9
\nBrinkman
\nBeckwith
\nSubaru WRX
\n18:22.6<\/p>\n
10
\nSullens
\nNewell
\nCitroen DS3 Citroen
\n19:47.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hayden Paddon and John Kennard celebrate winning the 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship. Image: Tayler Burke Paddon and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,12357,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-272805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-slot1","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}