The Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland, Round 3 of the NZ Rally Championship, has scored a major coup with the entry of top New Zealand driver Hayden Paddon into the event on Saturday, 18 July.
Paddon, the first kiwi to win a World Rally Championship (WRC) event when he won in Argentina in 2016, was the Production World Rally Champion in 2011 and has been the NZ Rally Champion seven times. He was the European Rally Champion in 2023 and 2024, and is also the reigning Australian Rally Champion.
This season, he has been contesting selected WRC events with the Hyundai WRC team, with appearances in Monte Carlo, Croatia, where he finished on the podium in third, and Japan.
This will be Paddon’s first rally appearance in New Zealand this year, so Southlanders are in for a real treat.
“It has felt like a while,” says Paddon of rallying in NZ.
“This will be my first gravel rally in New Zealand since last October.” Clerk Of The Course for the event, Craig Jessop, says having Paddon, “coming off several World Rally Championship events and then coming to Southland to do the event is great.”
Paddon will be the first car on the road in the event, but his Hyundai will carry the number 20, the number he carries in World Rally Championship events. He will lead away a fantastic field, and Jessop says, “It is really pleasing that most of the NZ Championship competitors have elected to do the event.”
Paddon will be at the wheel of his Hyundai i20N Rally 2, the car driven by former Australian Supercar driver Alex Rullo at Rally Otago, where Rullo unfortunately retired the car after an off-road excursion on Stage 8.
“The car is all repaired. It was mainly cosmetic damage. It was structurally and mechanically fine,” says Paddon.
With Southland not having been a regular on the NZRC calendar in recent years, the roads will be “mostly new” for Paddon.
“There are a couple of little bits similar to when I was there a couple of years ago. It is nice, it is exciting, to have the challenge of new stages. Anywhere you go in Southland, the roads are nice, fast and flowing; that is the stuff I love.”
Making the event even more special for Paddon is the fact that his father, Chris, and sister Eve will also be competing, with Chris driving alongside Eve in their Toyota Levin.
“I’m definitely looking forward to that. This is the first time Dad and I have competed in the same rally. Catlins and the Wyndham Rally used to be some of dad’s favourites.”
“Dad wasn’t going to compete again after the Silver Fern, but he has got the car, so it would be rude if he didn’t drive it. It will be Eve’s first rally, so it will be a big challenge,” says Paddon.
“Hopefully they enjoy it and have fun, it is about having skids.”
All the cars and drivers in the Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland will be at Invercargill Central from 4pm on Friday, 17 July, where there will be an opportunity to get autographs and see the cars up close before the Ceremonial Start at 6pm.
The following day, the cars leave Wyndham at 8.30am, tackle seven high-speed Special Stages, and conclude at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill at 3.45pm.
Header Image: Tayler Burke / ShotsbyTayB
