Kiwi rally star Hayden Paddon, with Christchurch’s Jared Hudson alongside as co-driver, took a dominant outright win at Rally Southland on Saturday, 18 July.
The pair won all seven stages of the rally, also known as the Barry Robinson Memorial Rally, which started and finished in Invercargill and took in 159.2 km of special stages around Wyndham, Waikawa Valley and Dunsdale.
Rally Southland is part of the 2026 New Zealand Rally Championship, but Paddon and Hudson were competing in the open 4WD class. The pair’s winning margin over second-placed and NZRC class winner Jack Stokes and Hayden Graves was two minutes, 43.2 seconds.
Driving the Paddon Racing Group-run Hyundai i20 Rally2, Paddon was delighted to be competing in a gravel rally again, following three asphalt World Championship Rallies earlier in the year.
“I really enjoyed being back on the gravel,” says Paddon.
“It’s felt like a long time since our last gravel rally and, of course, it’s been a couple of years since we’ve been down here in Invercargill.
“We enjoyed the super-fast stages and had some varied weather, a lot of fun. Overall, it was a nice, smooth day that also gave us the chance to try different Hankook tyre compounds and combinations.
“The team did an amazing job. The car ran absolutely faultlessly after the full rebuild, with no issues at all. Jared did a fantastic job too, despite it was the first time he’s been back in the car with me for a little while.”
Paddon’s father, Chris, and sister, Eve, also competed in the same event, the first time Chris Paddon had competed in a one-day rally for many years.
Paddon also expressed his delight with PRG, which prepared and ran five cars for the one-day rally.
“I’m very happy for the whole team because all five of our cars got to the finish without any issues. It was a very successful event for the team, especially with the amount of work everyone’s been putting in lately, so mission accomplished.”
Paddon’s next event in New Zealand is Rally Hawke’s Bay on 22 August and then, on 19-20 September, the Ashley Forest Rallysprint near Rangiora, a short, high-speed event which he won for the sixth time in 2025 with a time of 52.62 seconds on the 1.7 km course.
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.
Header Image: Tayler Burke/ShotsByTayB
