Hayden Paddon had a dream start to his maiden EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) season after winning Heat 1 of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Rally of Canberra. Heat 2 victory went to Scott Pedder and Glen Macneall. Finishing second in both Heats, Lewis Bates secured the overall victory on home turf for the first time in his career as he and co-driver Anthony McLoughlin took out overall top honours in a chaotic rally.
Heat 1: As it happened
Behind the wheel of the Hyundai i20N Rally 2, Paddon and John Kennard claimed the Heat 1 win over Lewis Bates/Anthony McLoughlin by a solid 30 seconds, with Scott Pedder/Glenn Macneall rounding out the top three for the day.
Although he eventually secured a comfortable Heat 1 win over Bates/McLoughlin, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Kiwi, who benefited from some mishaps with fellow title rivals Scott Pedder and Harry Bates.
Harry was the first of the two to suffer. After a strong win on the opening stage, the reigning champion and co-driver Coral Taylor hit a concrete drain in the second stage, forcing their Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia GR Yaris Rally 2 to lose a wheel and miss the morning’s remaining two stages.
Harry’s incident on stage two gifted Pedder/Macneall the lead, and the pair made sure of it with two consecutive wins in their newly acquired Skoda Fabia Rally 2. However, a puncture on the morning’s final stage saw them lose a minute and drop down the order.
That catapulted Paddon/Kennard into the top spot as a reward for their consistency, but only by just over 10 seconds at the midday service as Lewis/McLoughlin charged to a five-second win on Stage Four.
Remarkably, it took until the afternoon’s fifth stage for Paddon/Kennard to get their first stage win of the day. Still, the 2024 European Rally Championship winners didn’t look back once they hit the mark—winning the next three stages to extend their lead out to 35 seconds over Lewis/McLoughlin.
“It hasn’t been an easy day for us for sure, but obviously, we got the result, so that’s pleasing. We certainly had to work for it this morning,” Paddon said. “A few things sort of went against us. This afternoon, it sort of started to come back and the feeling was good but, obviously, as we can see, the pace is hot over here, so we’re looking forward to the challenge, which I’m sure is going to be all season long. That’s one day down. And there is obviously still another day to go. Tomorrow is very different in terms of the conditions and everything again. We start from scratch and reset and hopefully we can pick up where we left off this afternoon. I probably prefer tomorrow’s stages. it’s just a little bit easier to read and sort of gauge the conditions a little bit, but still challenging. In the end, we learned some stuff today with ourselves and the pace is in the car, so I’m sure we can take that forward to tomorrow.”
The Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia duo managed to finish the day off with a win and solidified second place in Heat 1 over Pedder/Macneall, who limped home after a minor incident on the day’s last stage.
A further 30 seconds off were Alex Rullo/Steve Glenney, who were highly consistent across the day, while rising star Josh Wiedman and new co-driver KJ Miller made up the top five – an incredible effort from the young pairing.
Not only was Wiedman’s good driving rewarded with an outright top-five finish, but it also secured him WOLF Production Cup honours, beating Andrew Penny and co-driver Rhys Llewellyn by more than four minutes in the class.
Penny/Llewellyn didn’t end Heat 1 empty-handed, as the Subaru Impreza pilots finished with the ARC 4WD Classic Cup Heat win and an outright top 10 finish of seventh.
Splitting Wiedman and Penny on the outright Heat 1 standings were ARC 2WD Cup winner Tony Sullens/Kaylie Newell in their Citroen DS3, while the Mitsubishi Evo 8 of Jody Mill/James Ford finished eighth.
Taking out the final two spots in the top 10 were ARC Junior Cup winners Jackson Long/Damian Long and cup rivals Jaidyn Gluskie/Lucy Gluskie.
Following their big mishap in the morning, Harry and Taylor had a much better afternoon, recording a trio of runner-up stage wins. The reigning champions finished Heat 1 between the two Stilling entries, with Trevor Stilling/Clare Buccini taking out the ARC 2WD for the winner.
Heat 2: As it happened
Lewis Bates secured the overall victory. Although Bates/McLoughlin were unable to secure Heat wins on either Saturday or Sunday, their consistency behind the wheel was rewarded as they faced no significant issues during the event, finishing second in both Heat 1 and 2.
Claiming second overall for the event were Scott Pedder/Glen Macneall after the duo guided their Skoda Fabia Rally 2 to third on both days, while Harry Bates and Coral Taylor rounded out the podium after comfortably winning Heat 2.
No one truly escaped the Canberra carnage throughout the weekend, with every crew sustaining damage in some capacity, including the podium-getters, with Lewis sustaining damage from a collision on Sunday morning, Pedder suffering a puncture, and Harry having missed multiple stages on Saturday due to a crash himself.
The big story from the day, though, was the early retirement of Heat 1 winners Paddon/Kennard, who hit a kangaroo in the opening stage. The damage proved too great as a result, and they could not finish the morning’s remaining stage, with a withdrawal from the afternoon’s loop.
Fellow Hyundai i20 Rally 2 pilots Alex Rullo/Steve Glenney had a similar fate to the New Zealanders – with an incident on the same stage seeing the pair pick up terminal damage in their right rear.
With Paddon and Rullo out after the opening stage and Pedder’s early puncture after winning Heat 2’s next stage, it opened up an intriguing battle between both Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia entries, which was eventually claimed by Harry and Taylor after they won five of the eight stages, including the Power Stage.
While Harry may have won the Heat and Power Stage, resulting in an incredible turnaround, having finished 14th on Saturday, the weekend belonged to Lewis, who enjoyed his first-ever win in Canberra.
“I am so happy. We’ve been trying to win this rally for seven years and being my home rally is extra special,” Lewis said. “Having everyone come out to cheer us on was awesome. IT was such a tough weekend and so happy to come out on top this weekend. Obviously others had their misfortunes. It was very unlucky for Hayden and John this morning, we were looking forward to a good battle with them today, but fortunately for us, luck was on our side this weekend and I am over the moon. We were very consistent and you create your own luck. What happened to Hayden and John this morning nothing can stop that, we actually hit a kangaroo as well but we just got lucky that it didn’t damage our car. We came here with a game plan and we executed it really well. Thank you so much to Anthony, the whole team at Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia for their support, and this GR Yaris it’s coped with a lot this weekend so super proud. It was super special and cool to see everyone out here cheering us on. The vibes this weekend since the Ceremonial Start have been absolutely incredible. I can’t thank Canberra enough for coming out and supporting us.”
Rounding out the top five for the Heat was the West Australian duo of Peter Rullo/Ben Searcy and young guns Josh Wiedman/KJ Miller – the latter duo fourth for the weekend after two top-five finishes.
Wiedman’s top-five finish was a remarkable result, as he dealt with brake issues for much of Heat 2 to hold on for his place – the result also securing him both the Heat 2 and overall event win in the WOLF Production Cup.
Incredibly, the battle for fifth in Heat 2 went right down to the wire, with Wiedman/Miller edging out Jody Mill/James Ford by one second, while overall ARC 4WD Classic Cup winners Andrew Penny/Rhys Llewellyn were a further three seconds off in seventh.
In eighth place overall for the Heat were overall ARC 2WD Cup winners Tony Sullens/Kylie Newell, with the Citroen DS3 crew having been on track for a top-five finish – only to have some issues midway through the day and slip down the order.
Making up Heat 2’s top 10 were the two junior entries, with Jaidyn Gluskie/Lucy Gluskie sneaking past Jackson Long/Damian Long by 10 seconds – the former enjoying the ARC Junior Cup victory in the process.
Taking out the final Cup win were Trevor Stilling/Claire Buccini, who were victorious in the 2WD Classic Cup for both Heat 2 and the event overall.
The next round of the 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship is the Forest Rally in Western Australia on 22-25 May.