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Paddon leads rally, provisional winner

Paddon leads rally, provisional championship winner

Saturday’s half of the two-day 0800 Boxman Rally of Nelson has seen Geraldine’s Hayden Paddon take an early overall lead, securing enough points for the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship title.

Using six gravel stages in the Golden Downs forest region south of Nelson, Paddon and co-driver John Kennard (Mitsubishi) have a 25 second lead over arch rival Richard Mason and co-driver Hamish Fenemor (Subaru).

Returning to four-wheel-drive competition, Auckland’s Patrick Malley and co-driver Malcolm Read hold third after being early leaders.

Perfect weather conditions quickly dried the roads of overnight rain, creating dust issues for many of the 38 cars who managed to complete the day.   While punctures affected most, the leading trio, using Dunlop tyres, triumphed in the conditions.

For Paddon the overnight lead wasn’t part of his weekend plan – concentrating on finishing to secure his second successive drivers’ title.  Using his alternate and older model Team Green Lancer EVO 8, Paddon said the early lead was not expected:

“It’s a good way of finishing off what you could best describe as a perfect year really.  Today we weren’t taking any risks and on the repeat run of stages there were obviously a few rocks in places that we were dodging but we didn’t slow down either – we just drove at a comfortable pace,” said the 22-year-old.

“To win the championship this year is extra special for the whole team because there is a lot of work that goes in to our campaign by a lot of people.  This year it has been good to have a lot more speed whereas last year we had lot more consistency.  We’ve mixed a bit more speed in with this year and there is still a lot of room for improvement, but with the championship sewn up the priority is to finish it off by winning the rally.  We’ve got to do that in a controlled manner and it’s going to be pretty tough with guys setting some pretty fast stage times today.”

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Behind Paddon for the overall Goldstar drivers’ title, Emma Gilmour (co-driver Glenn Macneall) suffered multiple punctures, despite setting two fastest stage times and languishes in 14th position.

An early off-road departure by Rotorua’s Sloan Cox and co-driver David Calder in the Lancer EVO 10 handed the junior category title to Christchurch’s Matt Jansen.  Currently placed sixth for the rally, Jansen had further reward with his second title for the day when points’ leader in the rookie category, Nelson local Kieran Hall, rolled his Subaru in the final stage.

A finish by Taranaki couple Mike and Helen Cameron was all they needed to secure their maiden title in the classic class, bringing their 1970’s Mitsubishi Lancer home behind the Nissan of Rob Wylie and Mazda of Euan Fuge.

Nelson local Ben Hunt and co-driver Jeff Cress hold the lead in the two-wheel drive stakes after a faultless drive in the Ford Fiesta.  Against fellow local drivers Daniel Harris (co-driver Tarryn Cox) and Dominick Unterberger (co-driver Chris Lancaster) they all head title leader Ben Jagger (co-driver Ben Hawkins) for the event after punctures marred the day.

Tomorrow’s conclusion to the six-month championship season again ventures south of Nelson, covering 143 kilometres broken in to seven competitive tests.  Accolades for performance will be awarded at a champagne ceremony from 3pm at Nelson’s World of Wearable Arts (WOW) complex.

Ends.

Results: Overall - day one 0800 Boxman Rally of Nelson (top-ten)

1 Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Geraldine) Mitsubishi  1:28:36.3
2 Richard Mason/Hamish Fenemor (Masterton) Subaru +25.1  
3 Patrick Malley/Malcolm Read (Auckland) Mitsubishi +1:06.2
4 Glenn Smith/Campbell Ward (Hawera) Mitsubishi +1:20.4
5 Stephen Barker/Brett Lightfoot (Hamilton) Mitsubishi +1:32.8
6 Matt Jansen/Jason Farmer (Christchurch) Subaru +1:57.6
7 Regan Ross/Nigel Ross (Kaikora) Mitsubishi +2:14.5
8 Josh Marston/Raymond Bennett (Christchurch) Mitsubishi +3:09.2
9 Chris West/Chris Cobham (Christchurch) Mitsubishi +4:29.7
10 Piran Pigneguy/Ric Chalmers (Hutt Valley) Mitsubishi +4:54.5

Live results will be available from the website http://www.chrissport.co.nz/resultsDetail.php?id_event=83

Photo images:


Geraldine's Hayden Paddon has taken an early lead in the final round of the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship, scoring enough points for his second successive drivers' title. Photo:  Euan Cameron http://www.nzrallychamps.co.nz/images/media/r5/lh_N99E1265_Paddon.jpg

Finishing today's opening half of the 0800 Boxman Rally of Nelson has gifted the classic category of the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship to Taranaki's Mike and Helen Cameron.  Photo: Euan Cameron http://www.nzrallychamps.co.nz/images/media/r5/lh_N99E1570_Cameronjpg

Returning to the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship, Hawera's Glenn Smith and co-driver Cam Ward are the leading open-class four-wheel-drive after the first day of the 0800 Boxman Rally of Nelson.  Photo: Euan Cameron http://www.nzrallychamps.co.nz/images/media/r5/lh_N99E1895_GSmith.jpg

Rally rookie Ben Hunt and co-driver Jeff Cress of Nelson are leading two-wheel-drive competitiors after the first of two-days at the 0800 Boxman Rally of Nelson - the final round of the 2009 Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship.  Photo: Euan Cameron http://www.nzrallychamps.co.nz/images/media/r5/lh_N99E2013_Hunt.jpg

Additional information:

Click to download rally itinerary or timetable:
http://www.rallynelson.co.nz/Documents/Nelson%20Itinerary%202009.pdf
http://www.rallynelson.co.nz/Documents/EVENT%20TIMETABLE%202009%20Version%204.pdf

Live results will be available from the website http://www.chrissport.co.nz/resultsDetail.php?id_event=83

Television coverage of the event will be featured on One Sport Powerbuilt Tools motorsport show.  Day one (one-hour segment) features on 27 September, with the second day airing 4 October.  The footage will also feature on TVNZ Sports extra Freeview from 4 October.

Website links:

ends

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