Good start for Paddon and BRC Racing Team at the Hungarian Rally

Good start for Paddon and BRC Racing Team at the Hungarian Rally


New Zealanders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard took a hard-fought fourth place at Rally Hungary 2024, the opening round of the 2024 FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) over the weekend, to finish 44 seconds behind the winner.

Paddon and Kennard faced a couple of tough days on the heavily travelled roads of Rally Hungary where five different drivers headed the leaderboard across the weekend.

The pair, who are the defending ERC champions, were firmly in the top four all weekend in their BRC Racing-run Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car and climbed to second place by special stage 12, but an unfortunate puncture on the last stage dropped them back to fourth place by the finish.

It was a weekend of what could have been,” says Paddon. “To come away with fourth obviously gives us some good points to start our championship challenge, but we were hoping for more, especially going into the last stage when we were holding second place.”

It was a test of attrition over the two days, with championship contenders striking problems on day two. But a conservative approach gave Paddon and BRC the best opportunity for a podium. 

Overall, it was a pretty rough, hot and demanding rally, particularly for the tyre wear due to the limited number of tyres as per regulation”.

Going into the last loop on Sunday, we were getting a bit tight on keeping new tyres available, but we were managing tyre wear the best we could. Through other people's problems, we stayed consistent and were able to get up to second. At that point, the aim was to simply try to look after that position and protect it in the last stage”.

“Our main championship rivals all struck problems, and there are seven more rallies to go so we have to think about that. The next round, the Canarias Rally is only three weeks away, so we've just got to stay positive and try and redeem ourselves there.”

Speaking about the first event, Gabriele Rizzo, BRC Racing Team Principal, says: “It was indeed a difficult rally. Despite rather conservative choices, we still ran into a puncture on the Power Stage which made us lose second place. As always, we will analyze everything within our control to reduce the chances of this happening again. In any case, I am satisfied with the team's work and the reliability of the car and we must still look positively at the result from a championship perspective given the numerous retirements, some for the main opponents for the title. The bitterness of having lost precious points will motivate us to find further motivations for the next race, in the Canary Islands on tarmac.”

Rally Islas Canarias runs 3 to 5 May where Paddon and Kennard are again in the BRC Racing-run Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car, they then head straight back to New Zealand for round two of the New Zealand Rally Championship.