New Zealand rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard head into new challenges with the second EROAD Australian Rally Championship round taking place in Western Australia this week.
The Forest Rally runs 23 to 25 May around the towns of Busselton and Nannup, south of Perth near Margaret River. The two day rally features a stacked entry list of 39 crews including international stars like 2020 FIA Junior World Rally Champion Tom Kristensson and co-driver Andreas Johansson of Sweden and regular local top-runners like the Bates brothers.
With the roads described as “unique, ball-bearing gravel”, Paddon and Kennard are expecting plenty of fast, sideways-sliding action on the stages in their refreshed Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car.
The Kiwi pair again have the support of their Cromwell-based PRG crew in Australia, with Paddon being fresh from taking the outright win at Rally South Canterbury with Jared Hudson co-driving in the team’s Hyundai i20 AP4.
While the pair’s first Australian outing this year didn’t go to plan in March, thanks to some local wildlife, they’re looking for maximum points this coming weekend and have been working through their pre-event preparation with their usual thoroughness.
“This is our first time competing in Western Australia,” says Paddon who’ll be starting number four on the road. “We’ve heard a lot about the loose marbles here that make it slippery, but from what we have seen from our homework, the stages look generally smooth and flowing.
“We’ve been working on a couple of small upgrades on the car, so we are looking forward to trying to get our championship bid back on track. That means we really need to target maximum points here, but we are also expecting a lot of fast teams here like the first ARC round in Canberra. Our goal is to focus on doing the best job we can from when recce starts on Thursday until the end of the rally on Sunday night.”
The Forest Rally gets underway with a rally show on Friday evening near the Busselton foreshore. Saturday’s six special stages take competitors into the Nannup forest and comprise two repeated loops of three stages with a total competitive distance of 103.28 km. Sunday’s six stages are also three tests repeated morning and afternoon, total 81.02 km, before the rally finish and podium celebrations in Nannap later in the day.
Kiwi fans can follow Paddon and Kennard during all six ARC events thanks to the championship organisers providing a mix of on-stage action, interviews and analysis via live streams broadcast on the ARC’s Facebook and YouTube channels.
PRG appreciates the support of their partners including Hyundai New Zealand, Caltex Havoline Oil, Mitre 10 Trade, Winmax Brake Pads, Bar’s Bugs, EROAD, Ben Nevis Station, Wipertech, Design Windows, MITO, Repco, Machinery House, King Gee, KiwiFibre, TrialLite, Hankook, Z Energy, Blaster and Signbiz.
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