Paddon and Kennard clinch Aussie title
Rally ace Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard were crowned winners of the 2025 Eroad Australian Rally Championship after finishing third in the season’s finale in Tasmania.
They are the second all-New Zealand pairing to win the Australian title, following Possum Bourne and Craig Vincent, who won the competition five times, consecutively from 1996 to 1999 and again in 2001.
Bourne also won the championship with Mark Stacey as co-driver in 2000 and 2002.
Paddon and Kennard, pictured, drove a Hyundai i20 Rally2 in this year’s championship and had won four of the five previous rounds heading into the two-day Tasmania rally.
This gave them an 85-point lead over their closest rivals and left them needing to finish 12th or better in the last round on November 8-9 to secure the championship.
After a relatively smooth run through Saturday’s eight stages, they were in second place and 7.4 seconds behind rally leaders Harry Bates and Coral Taylor.
Sunday’s eight stages proved more challenging after a broken damper on a 44km section of the race meant they had to nurse the Hyundai through to the stage finish.
They managed to safely negotiate the rally’s final stage to ensure they reached the finish and claimed third spot, which was enough to clinch their first Australian rally title.
“We’re really happy to get the result over the line,” says Paddon. “There was a lot of pressure this weekend just to finish.
“Performance wasn’t really an aspect we needed to push for and it’s always a bit more nerve-wracking when it’s like that.
“Things can happen that are outside your control, which almost did happen with a broken damper and losing a bit of time as we nursed the car home.
“Probably the slowest way we’ve ever won a championship, but we did what we had to do – not just today, but all year.
“It’s great to bring home the result and win the championship. It’s great to do this for the whole team. Everyone’s put in a lot of work this year.”
He adds having his and Kennard’s names alongside their hero Possum Bourne “feels somewhat surreal”.
“A lot of this is for Possum. He was the inspiration over the last couple of years to keep going and to come over and do something he really dominated,” continues Paddon.
The success means Kennard, 66, may be one of the oldest co-drivers in the world to win a national rally title.
“It’s great to come to a new championship and do well, especially against a field that is really competitive and at events that are really well run,” he says.
“This is my 20th year as Hayden’s co-driver, so I think it’s really cool that after all these years, we’re still competitive and still winning championships together.”
