Paddon and Kennard clinch second European Rally Championship
Once again, Kiwi rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have achieved a major milestone by winning their second FIA European Rally Championship title in Poland on October 13th.
Their success also earned the teams’ championship title for BRC Racing Team, in their second year in the ERC competition.
The eighth and final ERC round, Rally Silesia, took place in southern Poland on asphalt over the weekend of 11 to 14 October.
Having won the previous ERC event in Wales, plus Rally Bay of Plenty back home in New Zealand, Paddon came into the ERC final with a clear goal of a top five finish. This would secure the championship title regardless of where Mathieu Franceschi, who held second on the drivers’ championship leaderboard, finished.
All started well for the Kiwis on Friday with the fourth quickest time in qualifying which means they start in P4, exactly where Paddon wanted to be for road position. They followed that up with a third quickest time around the 1.85km super special stage in Katowice on Friday evening.
For Saturday’s eight challenging stages in sunny, dry conditions, Paddon’s plan was to keep a good pace with no risk but with the car working really well, Paddon’s comfortable pace delivered five stage wins and an overnight lead of 6.8 seconds ahead of Italian driver Andrea Mabellini.
“To be leading was more than we expected,” said Paddon on Saturday evening. “Everything felt really good in the car which made our job easier, and we were able to push without taking any risks.”
Sunday’s action started in fine weather but with rain expected, most competitors ran a mix of tyre compounds. Rain started on SS11 and road conditions were variable, and rain continued through to the power stage on SS14.
“When the rain set in, it made things very challenging. We had a few little moments, scares and a couple of spins which was a bit of a reality check. We’re here with one goal, to win the championship so had to dial it down a bit to make sure we cruised through the last stage to get home and wrap up the championship.”
“Overall, it’s been a great yet challenging weekend, to bring home the championship in such tricky conditions. It’s been a rally of two halves with dry conditions on day one when everything felt so good in the car. Then today’s challenging wet and windy conditions when we had to rein things in and keep our goal in mind.
“Obviously I’m very proud of everyone involved: everyone at BRC Racing Team, John, our team back home, to secure a second ERC title, particularly after the first half of the season when we were looking like we were on the back foot. It felt like a tall order to try and win the championship this year but we never gave up and the team dug really deep. We were able to find something in the latter part of the year that really helped us click with the car and brought us back into play for the championship.
“Overall, it’s been a very tough season mentally to make sure we got through and got all the points we could. We never stopped worked on the consistency side of things. But yes, I’m very proud. It’s more than we expected and a relief to get that over the line.”
BRC Racing Team Principal Gabriele Rizzo says:“ “We are thrilled to have secured two more FIA European titles. The way they were clinched is particularly satisfying. After a difficult start of the season with some negative episodes that made us lose several points, we further raised the bar by calling into question various technical aspects together with the crew and our technical partners. The outcome was a continuous improvement of results useful for regaining and then securing the lead in the standings. The dominant victory in Wales and the extraordinary performance here in Poland are the culmination of this journey and show that our current level of performance is at the top of the category. The icing on the cake was the victory of the team title. That repays the entire team for the extraordinary quality of the work done together, not only this season. In FIA ERC our team has been absolutely flawless for two consecutive seasons and together with a super reliable car like the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 we have never had a technical problem while offering excellent performance in every type of condition and against every type of competitor. A special thanks to Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing and Pirelli who have made all this possible by offering their products and their support. Thanks also to our sponsors GD, SAS and OMP. Let’s enjoy these emotions for a while, then in few days we’ll need to focus in FIA TCR World Tour to continue our winning streak. ”
As well as the first non-European to successfully win consecutive ERC titles, Paddon is the first successful ERC title defender since Polish driver Kajetan Kajetanowicz in 2016.
2024 ERC points table - https://www.fiaerc.com/result-and-standings?menu=championshipStandingComponent