Dominant win in Wales for Paddon to further extend ERC lead
Kiwi rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard performed at their best to take out a dominant win at Rali Ceredigion, the seventh round of the 2024 FIA European Rally Championship, and extend their lead in the championship with just one round to go.
BRC Racing team crew contested the Welsh ERC event over the weekend of 30 August to 1 September and were on form from the outset in their BRC Racing-run Hyundai i20 Rally 2.
They won the qualifying stage on Thursday, which allowed Paddon to be the first in the road position for the upcoming tarmac stages which covered forestry tracks and high narrow around the Welsh coastal town of Aberystwyth.
They started out by winning the opening two super special stages on the streets of Aberystwyth on Friday. On Saturday, Paddon describes the roads as “magic” as he won one stage after another to dominate the day’s proceedings. He continued his strong run throughout the afternoon, taking care to avoid the deep cuts off the edge of the tarmac to look after the car and tyres to win seven of the day’s eight stages and lead the rally by one minute, 18 seconds by day’s end.
Going into Sunday’s final four stages, Paddon’s goal was to manage that lead and set himself up to do well in the final, bonus points-earning power stage. After touring the opening stage due to another competitor’s accident, the rest of the day went as planned even when the onset of rain made for slippery conditions and changeable grip levels, with Paddon winning the power stage to bank the maximum five points.
In the end, Paddon and Kennard won the rally by one minute, 47 seconds from Italian ERC competitor Andrea Mabellini while their main ERC title competitor, Mathieu Franceschi, was third. On the ERC drivers’ championship points-table, Paddon now has 131 points to Franceschi’s 104 points. With 30 points available for the winner of the final ERC round in Poland in October, plus a possible 5 power stage points, the 2024 title is still up for grabs.
Paddon says he’s delighted to secure a strong result and keep his championship prospects very much alive: “I’m really happy. It’s been a perfect weekend from the outset and the car has felt great. In qualifying, it was very important to push hard for a good result to get a good road position we wanted for the rally. We were able to capitalise on that for Saturday by working hard during the morning to build a bit of a margin with the goal of then being able to manage that for the rest of the rally.”
“The car felt so good that we were still stay competitive and win more stages and build a healthy lead going into Sunday. Then it was about getting through and trying to maximise points.”
“On Sunday, we cruised through the first three stages to prepare ourselves to push for the power stage. We were able to do that and win the power stage to earn maximum points for the weekend which was the perfect result. Our championship position is that we have a pretty healthy lead but it’s not enough to wrap up the championship title with a round to spare. At the moment, we’re working through the budget with the team so we can do the final round in Poland. We’ll be doing everything in our power to get there.”
“Huge credit to the team who did an amazing job not just this weekend but throughout the year. It’s nice to reward everyone’s hard work with a rally win and now we look forward to the next event.”
BRC Racing Team Principal Gabriele Rizzo says: “It has been the perfect weekend we have worked hard for. I am really happy for this result and the way it comes, it’s the deserved recognition of the tireless and competent work that both Hayden, John and the team have done all along the season. In previous events different episodes slowed down our performances and affected our final results, not giving the right merit for the quality of our job. This time everything worked perfectly, and the results show clearly the state of grace we achieve in this event. The performance of Hayden and John was outstanding, in a very tricky and technical rally where the pace notes accuracy and the usual mix of experience and pure speed were simply perfect. Car was super reliable as usual, and the pure performance we put down together with rally strategy and tyres choice was of the highest level we provided so far. Behind that a lot of work together with our technical partners, Hyundai MotorSport Customer Racing, Pirelli and OMP. Thanks also to our sponsors, GD and SAS, for their trust in us, which we feel like we are paying back with results like these. We have few weeks to finalize next and last event as we’ll need an extra effort from all the parts to clinch down a second FIA ERC title.”
With his win at Rali Ceredigion, Paddon became the seventh different winner of the eight-event 2024 FIA ERC, highlighting how competitive this ERC season has been.
Before the all-new Rally Silesia in Poland running 11 to 13 October, Paddon competes in two New Zealand Rally Championship events – Daybreaker Rally in the Manawatu on 14 September and Rally Bay of Plenty on 5 October, as well as the Ashley Forest Rally Sprint on 20 and 21 September.