For the first time during the event there was a new overall leader. Australian Paul Dowie (Porsche GT3RS) was only 1.9 seconds behind David Rogers heading into Leg 3's opening test Ratapiko which was a 22km stage at the foot of Mt Taranaki.

Rogers’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 lost 4th and 5th gears which slowed them significantly. They lost 20 seconds in the stage then temporarily withdrew so that the DNG team could install a new gearbox. With the change only taking two hours they were back for the two afternoon stages where they recorded the third fastest time on both stages.

Andrew Oakley and his co-driver Steve Hutchins are leading the Production 4WD class by 4 minutes although they started to have the rear differential overheat in the morning, but soon found that they just needed to change the oil otherwise the car had been running faultlessly. Second place is the Toyota Yaris GR of Ben and Gus Forrest. Sitting in third is Michael Chora and his co-driver Rachael Ferrante who are in a Subaru WRX STi.

Charlie Evans and his co-driver Carol Liston currently lead the Allcomers 2WD class with a 3 minute lead over Dave Strong and Rob Scott. Strong took advantage of the extended service today to change the axles on his Honda Jazz RS as they were getting close to the end of their lifespan. Amazingly, with all his year's in the sport, this is Dave’s first Targa event. He is usually found with a range of Hondas on gravel rallies. Charlie Evans is also a regular on the gravel.

Long-time Targa competitor Mike Lowe’s team worked on his Volvo240T until 2:30am this morning fixing the engine in Cambridge. He rejoined for the first of the two afternoon stages in the Classic 2WD 3401cc and over Class. Bevan Claridge and Campbell Tannock lead this Class in their Holden Commodore.

Additional cars will join in on the fun tomorrow for the Regional Two Day Targa. This will include four-time New Zealand Rally Champion Bruce Herbert. He will be piloting a BMW 325 with Samantha Cox in the co-drivers seat.

Ultima driver Craig Haysman and his co-driver Jason Page are both recovering in Hospital after their crash yesterday.

The cars will leave Palmerston North Square from 8:30am tomorrow morning and take on seven special stages from AShurst up to Taihape before traversing the Gentle Annie Road before finishing up in the Hawkes Bay.

Day 2's four stages were held between Rotorua and the central North Island township of Wharepapa before the mid-day service and lunch which was provided by Wharepapa South School. Dave Rogers and Shane Reynolds (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10) continued to hold onto the lead at the conclusion of a shortened Leg 2 by the narrowest of margins.

Australian’s Paul Dowie/John Allen in the Porsche GT3 RS won two of the four stages that were run today. This allowed them to eat into Rogers lead to end the day just 1.9 seconds behind.

The similar Mitre 10 Porsche GT3 RS of Martin Dippie and his co-driver Jona Grant are a further 48 seconds back.

In the 2WD Classic’s Mark McCaughan and Lindsay Lyons continued to stretch out the gap to the Ford Escort being driven by Steven Blackley and his co-driver Daniel Newton with a comfortable 3 minute margin. Bevan Claridge has not been able to get on top of the electrical issue that plagued the Holden yesterday and has dropped down to seventh place.

The Volvo of Mike Lowe and Paul Lyons was another car to experience mechanical gremlins. As Mike recalls “Bolt fell out of the wastegate control giving 40lb+ boost and cracked pistons. I posted on Volvo 240 Facebook and within 10min I had someone who I don’t know offer us a complete set of pistons and rods!! We are now at a workshop in Cambridge rebuilding the motor. Never Ever Give Up!!! Hopefully we’ll be done by midnight and will try and make tomorrow afternoon stages”

Within the Targa event is also the Time Trial.

There are six cars entered with their aim of trying to drive as close as possible to a pre-determined time, with penalty points awarded.

The Toyota MR2 driven by Dallas Yates and his sister Alise Inger in the co-driver’s seat currently lead this group. In second place is the Mazda MX5 of Craig Inger and Oliver Going while Des and Ellinor Redgwell are placed third in a Volvo 240GL.

The Event stayed in New Plymouth overnight, ready for another shortened day where, because of the storm damaged roads heading to Taumarunui, they will tackle 3 roads of the Taranaki and Manawatu area, now split by a lunch stop in Whanganui.

At the conclusion of Day 1 of Targa 2025 it was the David Rogers/Shane Reynolds (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10) pairing that leads the pack with a 14 second lead over second placed Paul Dowie and his co-driver John Allen who are driving a Porsche GT3RS.

Rogers’s lead was almost not to be when on Stage 2 they were caught out on cold tyres and “took a massive slide down to the intersection on shiny tar” as Reynolds commented. Dowie is also leading the Modern 2WD class.

The first stage was won by the Ultima RS driven by Craig Haysman with Jason Page as his co-driver, while Mike Tubbs and Matt Bailey finished the stage 12 seconds off in the BMW M2.

Matt Tubbs/ Matt Sayers (Audi RS3) took the Lead by winning Stage 2 and maintained it until going off the road in Stage 6, which meant Rogers took over.

Defending Targa Champion Marcus van Klink and Matt Richards Mazda RX8 encountered trouble when the fly by wire stepper motor failed. This forced their temporary withdrawal until Stage 4 where they rejoined having sorted the issue, although well down in the placings.

There were five different stage winners on Day 1 including van Klink who won Stage 6. They have since had to retire from the event.

In the Classic 2WD class the Mercedes 190E 2.3-16 of Mark McCaughan and his co-driver Lindsay Lyons finished the day 1 minute 35 seconds ahead of Bevan Claridge and co-driver Campbell Tannock.

Throughout the day the Holden Commodore of Claridge and the Mercedes of McCaughan had been closely matched for times until on stage 6 when the Holden lost over 1 minute to the Mercedes. Steven Blackley and Daniel Newton (Ford Escort) sit third in this class at the day’s end.

Drift ace Cam Vernon made a guest appearance with his Skyline doing drifting demonstration runs in between the Time Trial cars and the Tour cars started their run. He will continue this for the remainder of the week until Saturday.

There were sporadic showers throughout the day which made selecting the right tyre difficult between Wet’s or Dry’s.

Some of the roads had also been subject to heavy rain in the days leading up to the Targa making them somewhat challenging in places with gravel and waterflow still on them.

The storms on Monday around Kawhia, Piopio and Taumarunui have had a more profound effect as we head into tomorrow and on towards New Plymouth, with the final four stages having had to be cancelled due to the slips and flooding.

Quentin Palmer and co-driver Michael Goudie (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) have carried on their season-long winning form, coming home first Hawkeswood Mining North Island Rally Series (NIRS) competitor in Saturday’s Battery Town Rally Bay of Plenty. 

Having wrapped up the overall title at Rally Waitomo, the pairing never let up and made it their fourth victory over the five round 2025 NIRS season.  

"Thrilled with the win," commented Palmer.  "We've been enjoying today's stages.  It was an interesting morning and a big learning day with initially lots of dust.  The forest was really good, quite flat out and I loved the Manawahe Road (SS7) stage.  The last two were very cool as well."  

Second home were Ben Huband and Corinne Watson (Subaru Impreza WRX) with Andy Martin and Matt Hayward (Subaru WRX) in third.   

Also doubling as the penultimate round of the NZ Rally Championship, initially it was Todd Bawden (Ford Fiesta Mk II R5) who set the pace coming in first NIRS car in Special Stage 1. While Bawden was quickest in six of the ten stages to Palmer's four, he slid a little wide on one corner which resulted in a high-speed tyre delamination that dropped him down the order to eventually finish tenth.  

Huband's second place moved him into second overall for the series, seven-points clear of William Menzies in third. 

Menzies was lucky to finish the rally after a decent hit to the rear of his car in Special Stage 5.  Bawden finished fourth equal overall in the Series with Bradley Stewart (Subaru Impreza WRX).  

Menzies incident opened the door for Huband's co-driver Corinne Watson to win the Overall Co-Driver's title, 17-points clear of Menzies co-driver Doug Dolan with Stewart's co-driver Oliver Drake third. Shane Reynolds was first NIRS codriver home in the Rally sitting with Robbie Stokes (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) who won the NZRC section.  

Sam Broadbent (Toyota Corolla) won the fight for the Class B (2WD 1301-1600cc) title after Marc Milner (Toyota Starlet) retired with a mechanical diff failure in SS6.  Milner finished third for the series with Mike Goldsbury (Toyota Corolla DX) in second.  Matthew Broadbent took the Class Co-Driver's title in his and brother Sam’s rookie year, ahead of Mike Goldsbury and Paul Ayres.  

John Whooley (Honda Civic) won Class C (2WD 1601-2000) as well as the Clubmans section of the Rally with rival Adrian Sutton (Nissan Pulsar) retiring in SS5 and finishing runner up, with Dale James (Ford Fiesta ST150) third.  Stephen Dill had already wrapped up the Co-drivers Class title after the penultimate round ahead of Kim Raggett and Clint Sammons.  

Chris Ramsay (Toyota Corolla APR2) led Class D (2WD 200cc and over) heading into Rally Bay of Plenty.  However, having not entered, this enabled Brent Taylor (Toyota 86) to share first equal with Charlie Evans third. Ironically, it was Ramsay who sat in Taylor's co-driver's seat for the round. 

Taylor also picked up the Hawkeswood Mining Driver of the Day award, finishing fourth NIRS competitor home and first 2WD.

Rob Scott picked up the Class D Co-Driver's title with Matt Priest in second and Dave Neill in third.  

Although gearbox issues saw Kyle Percival (Ford Escort Mk2) retire in SS3, he had already wrapped up the Class E (Classic 2WD) title ahead of Nick Flanagan and Mike Vincent.  Percival’s co-driver Findlay Tyack had also wrapped up the Class title.  

Palmer picks up the Class F (4WD 1601-2000) title with a 33-point margin over Bawden with Eugene Creugnet (Mitsubishi Mirage AP4) in third.  Bawden’s co-driver Katrina Renshaw takes the Class F Co-Driver’s title with Shane Reynolds sharing second equal with Dayna Kiekebosch.  

Ben Huband (Subaru Impreza WRX) overhauled Menzies lead in Class G (4WD 2001 and over) winning the title with Carlin Leong (Subaru Impreza) third, while Huband's co-driver Corinne Watson beat Doug Dolan by five-points to the Co-Driver’s title with Nathan Roa third.  

Bradley Stewart’s (Subaru Impreza) sixth place overall also gave him the Class I (4WD Pre 1996) title over Chris Burke (Toyota Celica) with third going to Shaun Wade (Mitsubishi Mirage).   Stewart’s co-driver Oliver Drake beat Stephen Taylor for the Co Driver’s Class title by 21-points with Haylee Wade in third.  

Nick Flanagan (Peugeot 205) was awarded the RallyDrive New Zealand full day of testing voucher for new competitors.  

"It's been a learning experience this season with a Rally2 car, especially coming out of an (Mitsubishi) Evo,” said Palmer. 

"We have got some plans for next year to step up to the NZRC, which we are starting to put together."  

The NIRS prizegiving takes place Saturday 29 November at the Northern Sports Car Club in Mount Wellington.  

The 2025 North Island Rally Series acknowledges and thanks the following for their support: Hawkeswood Mining, Semog, Pure Quality Construction, Rallydrive NZ, Paddon Racing Group, ISignit and Online Contractors.

Championship protagonist Robbie Stokes has set up a thrilling finish to the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship by winning the Battery Town Rally Bay of Plenty on Saturday.

Stokes (Stokes Motorsport Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) collected his second career NZRC round win by holding off three-time national champion and defending champ Ben Hunt (Skoda New Zealand Fabia Rally2 evo) by just 1.4 seconds in a gripping battle between the pair.

A spin by Hunt in stage three – the first of four forestry stages – proved the difference as he dropped almost 19 seconds to his Canterbury rival.

Hunt then fought back with an impressive afternoon charge but came up just short in his bid to win a fourth event on the 2025 calendar.

He will take a nine-point lead into the final round of the Championship at Whangarei next month.

Jack Stokes came home third in his Ford Fiesta AP4 with Jack Hawkeswood (Force Motorsport GR Yaris AP4) and Josh Marston (RDL Holden Barina AP4) fifth.

Bryn Jones (Ford Fiesta Rally4) won the NZRC 2WD class for the fifth straight time in 2025 to take a commanding lead over Tim Mackersy.

Dave Strong bounced back from a couple of rough outings to secure maximum points in the Open 2WD class.

Deane Buist’s masterclass in the Historic 2WD class continued as he produced another sublime performance to be sixth overall and first in class in the Ford Escort (IF 780).

The Rally Challenge was a war of attrition as championship leader Caleb Macdonald crashed heavily earlier in the day in his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6. He will likely need another car to win the title at Whangarei.

Julien Lenglet crashed out on the penultimate stage while newcomer Will Menzies went off the road midway through the afternoon, but recovered to finish.

Ben Huband (Subaru Impreza WRX) survived the drama of the Rally Challenge 4WD class to come out on top while Josh Keighley (Subaru Magnum H6) claimed a terrific second place and local driver Gavin Feast nursed his Subaru WRX home for third.

Keighley beat Kevin Laird (Subaru H6) home in the Group A battle.

The final round is the 2-Day Vertex Oil International Rally of Whangarei to be run West and South of the city on the weekend of November 7th - 9th.

The third iteration of the Battery Town Rally Bay of Plenty running as a round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship is hugely welcomed by all those involved, however this year there are two significant differences.    

The first is there will be a new NZRC round winner as, although he will be expected to make it a threepeat, Hayden Paddon is not registered for this year’s NZRC.

So, the NZRC favourites will undoubtedly be the pair of Skodas that have dominated the series so far, in the hands of defending champion Ben Hunt and Robbie Stokes who is in great form this year, being fresh from winning the Mainland Series for the second time and has finally ‘broken his NZRC duck’ by winning his home round at Canterbury back in June.

The second difference is that over half the 165km of Special Stages at BOP will take place on dedicated forestry roads – as rallying returns to the Matahina Forest  for the first time in two decades, when they formed part of the penultimate FIA APRC International Rally of Rotorua.

That rally, containing just over 250km in 10 stages – including the Motu run at its full 47.38km distance –  was won by the ex-Subaru WRC driver Toshi Arai from Japan  in a Subaru Impreza STi N11 with Kiwi Tony Sircombe co-driving and winning his first rally in NZ since the Northern Sports Car Club’s Woodhill Forest Rally way back in 1982 when he sat alongside Peter Farrell in a Ford Escort.

The NZRC round winners were Richard Mason and his brother-in-law Hamish Fenemor – deputising for Sara Randall (Mason) who had  university exams to attend – in their Group N Subaru Impreza STi N8. They finished 2nd overall to Arai by 1 min 45.5 secs.

In one of the closest NZRC round results on record, and after almost 3 hours total time, Mason won by just 1.9 seconds over the Ralliart NZ Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 of Mark Tapper and Jeff Judd. Brett Martin/Crunch Bennett (Evo 8) were third over 3 minutes further back, but just 0.9 seconds ahead of Chris West/Garry Cowan in their Winger Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

Other well-known names competing back then were (of course) Brian Green and Fleur Pedersen in the Silverstone Tyres Rally Team Evo 8 who finished 6th in the APRC round, Emma Gilmour who retired in her Evo 6 and Brent Taylor/Chris Ramsay in a Rally Drive NZ Evo 6 – finishing 13th in the NZRC section, just behind Greeny and Fleur. Dave Strong/Bruce McKenzie in one of his (many) Honda Civic Type R’s won the Clubman’s section, while experienced co-driver Mal Peden retired due to a fire in Kevin Honiss’ Subaru Impreza.

Another name of note who won the APRC Group A7 Class in Rotorua that year was one Julien Lenglet (who was French in those days) in a Honda Integra Type R. Coincidentally Julien and Fleur are teaming up again this weekend as Julien can rightly celebrate winning the NZRC International Driver award already and continue the great pace he showed at Coromandel last month.

So, there are a handful of this year’s BOP competitors who have been in Matahina before, but it will be new territory for the vast majority and, at over 90km of stage distance in the pair of repeated stages, these roads could well have a significant bearing on deciding a number of this year’s NZRC category winners. 

THE STATE OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP GOING INTO RALLY BOP:

All Round Scores count for both the overall GoldStar and the 2WD championships, so once again consistency and completing every kilometre of every stage is paramount.

By doing so (so far) Triple Champion Ben Hunt has therefore deservedly earned the right to lead the series since his win at the outset at Otago back in April.

A minor early slip up at South Canterbury by Robbie Stokes has provided Ben with most of his 11-point advantage, but Robbie has continued to take the fight to Ben and another fascinating contest is in prospect this weekend. Should either of them have any sort of hiccup – like Ben’s puncture at BOP last year – then the other 4 Category One crews entered are all quite capable of compounding this by finishing ahead and costing either of the main title contenders dearly.

MSNZ Elite Academy Winner Jack Stokes has shown incredible pace, leading on his Cat 1 debut at Otago and completing the podiums at both Canterbury and Coromandel.

Like the younger Stokes, the other Jack (Hawkeswood) suffered badly from his DNF in the forest at South Canterbury and will be very keen to (potentially) send his AP4 Yaris out with at least a podium finish.

Josh Marston (Holden Barina AP4) is another who has shown real pace this year, as well as being the most experienced with the MRF control tyres, but time consuming delays have blunted his challenge at crucial times.

Emma Gilmour rejoins the series after, like Jack Hawkeswood, retiring  in the second pass of Kakahu Forest at South Canterbury and then missing the last two rounds, but can never be discounted in her Citroen C3 Rally2.

As you would expect the GoldStar Co-Drivers has Tony Rawstorn (Hunt) out in front of Shane Reynolds (Stokes) by 11 points from Andrew Graves (Marston) – 42 behind Tony – as the other main contender.

2WD has been dominated by Deane Buist who has won every round and ‘dropped’ only 3 points (by not winning 2 Power Stages) from the maximum possible 134.

Bryn Jones in his Rally4 Fiesta has been equally consistent at all four rounds so far, but finishing second to Deane each time means he is a crucial 16 points behind the incredibly rapid BDA Escort from Christchurch.

Similarly Rally4-mounted Tim Mackersy and Steve Gill (Escort) have both finished all four rounds and are still in with a chance should the two front runners come unstuck.

2WD Co-Drivers is a different story as Deane’s regular navigator Karl Celeste chose to drive at Canterbury, so Bryn’s co-driver Sean Lockyear has a 14 point lead over Karl with Tim’s wife Lauren just 6 points further back and Grant Molloy (Gill) another 11 behind Lauren.

Category (Cat) 1 Drivers is almost the same as the GoldStar with the addition of Jack Hawkeswood 57 points behind Ben and still a mathematical chance with 74 points available over the final two rounds.

The Cat 1 Co-Drivers is the same as the GoldStar as Jason Farmer (Hawkeswood) missed Canterbury due to an injury.

For the first time since COVID, Categories 2, 3 and 4 crews must drop their worst result from the first 5 rounds, so the effect of that makes for some intriguing changes to the current Points Tables.

In Cat 2 Bryn Jones already has the maximum total of 134 from the first four rounds, so his approach at BOP will be to finish ahead of Tim so the Dunedin couple can not improve their total of 114 either, and thereby go to Whangarei still with a 20 point lead. Should Tim win on Saturday the best he can add is 4 points as he worst score so far is 3 x Seconds at each of the One Day rounds. The same scenario applies to the Co-Drivers for Sean and Lauren.

Cat 3 has also been light on entries this year and Dave Strong has benefited greatly from that as two retirements in the last two rounds have still not really affected his aspirations for yet another NZRC title as his opposition Paul Cross DNF’d at Otago and to date has competed only in the South Island, so Dave finds himself still leading by 9 points.

Rob Scott is the Cat 3 Co-Driver Champion-elect as Janey Blair (Cross) missed South Canterbury, so Rob currently enjoys a 35 point lead and a finish this Saturday will put him out of reach with a round to go.

In Cat 4 Deane Buist does have the maximum points (134) so can’t improve his total and will be hoping that the third Cat 4 entry at BoP, Mike Cameron, can finish ahead of Steve Gill to prevent Steve from increasing his score and thereby go to Whangarei maintaining his 22 point lead.

In the Co-Drivers Grant Molloy has an 8 point advantage over Karl Celeste, but having missed Canterbury, Karl can take whatever points he (and Deane) can score, so we can expect a change of leader if the expected Buist run of form continues.

The Rally Challenge and Cat 5’s Dropped Round(s) Rule is different again as here the worst 2 round scores of the first 5 rounds are ignored.  

So in the Rally Challenge and Cat 5A Queenstown’s Caleb Macdonald has done so well in the three rounds he’s contested so far, he can add only 1 point to his 89.

Second placed Josh Keighley has scored at all 4 rounds this year, so has already dropped his points from Otago to sit 20 points in arrears. If he was to win this weekend Josh would increase his total by 13 points to 82, and by doing so keep Caleb on 89, so the gap would close up considerably.

Several other drivers are still very much in contention with Julien Lenglet and Ben Huband able to add whatever they can score to their current totals. Net increases can also be made by Gavin Feast and Kevin Laird and Greeny will still be in the mix when he (hopefully) makes his much anticipated return at Whangarei.

It’s a similar situation in the Challenge and Cat 5A Co-Drivers with Larisa Biggar (Macdonald) and Neill Woolley (Keighley) in the box seats, but Brianna Little (Greeny), Aled Jones (Laird), Fleur Pedersen (Lenglet), Corinne Watson (Huband) and J-P van Der Meys (Feast) all still in with a shot.

Unfortunately there are no Cat 5B entries at BOP so the South Island peddlers Ian Warren (78) and Thomas Paul (60) remain the top two here. However it’s Thomas’ Co-Driver Bridget Airey who has a 6 point lead over Brody Cattermole (Warren) in the Cat 5B Co-Drivers.

Cat 5C is extremely close with Josh Keighley just 2 points ahead of Kevin Laird with two round wins each and only separated by different results on Power Stages. They are the only their two entries at BOP, so whoever can come out on top would increase his score by a maximum of 4 points.

So again if Kevin can win he would take over the lead going to Whangarei and the outcome of the Power Stage could again prove crucial.

Now we are back to ‘All Scores Count’ with the other Awards and the Junior Championship couldn’t be any closer with Josh Keighley just a single point ahead of Bryn Jones. The two young Jack’s (Stokes and Hawkeswood) have bounced back well from their South Island troubles and either could well take the lead going to Whangarei if the cards fall in their favour.

The Rookie Driver is down to a Three Horse Race with Josh Keighley 7 points clear of Steve Gill and Kevin Laird a similar margin further back.

The Gold Card Driver has become an interesting contest with current leader Pat Norris not at BOP giving Mike Cameron a golden opportunity to grab the lead going to Whangarei. The only other Gold Card starter is Dave Strong who could also come right back into contention if he can make the Finish. Dave would be expected to beat Mike, so should that play out the points after BOP would be Mike Cameron leading on 100, Pat Norris still on 86, then Dave and Greeny each on 72, but both out of the running with ‘only’ a further 25 points on offer for winning Whangarei.

As mentioned, the only award we can say that has already been decided is the International Driver, so it’s CONGRATULATIONS to Vanuatu’s Julien Lenglet, who has an unassailable lead over the Irish/Aussie Glenn Alcorn and our Japanese visitor Fuyuhiko Takahashi.

The Manufacturers Trophy is still too close to call with Skoda leading Ford by 7 points, but the two front running Skodas would still be considered favourites to turn the tables on last year’s winner. However Toyota and Holden are still a chance should anything happen to the two European Makes.

The Teams Cup for Categories 1 – 4 has ‘M-Sport Rally4’ (Bryn Jones & Tim MacKersy) logging the maximum score possible, but for all that they are still only 28 points ahead of ‘Dougy’s Darlings’ (Josh Marston & Deane Buist), so anything is On should anyone slip up.

In Teams Cup Category 5 ‘Big Belly Rally’ (Caleb Macdonald & Kevin Laird) are 8 points clear of ‘B Class Battlers’ (Ian Warren and Thomas Paul), but as neither Ian or Thomas are at BOP the only other team still providing any opposition is ‘Team Vanuatu & Pure Quality’ (Julien Lenglet and Ben Huband), but they are 55 points behind Caleb & Kevin.

All 27 Categories and Awards are available at any time on the ChrisSport website via the Black ‘2025 Points’ icon on the Options Line at the top of the Home Page. They are also available on the Mobile Version by clicking on the POINTS icon on the Footer of that Home Page and then selecting the Series you want to view.

Kiwi rally star Zeal Jones has completed a big week in his career with his first win in the Morizo Challenge Cup series in Japan – and he saved his best to last.

Jones and co-driver Bayden Thomson took control of the eight stage – two-day – Kumakogen Rally early on during the first days stages and ran trouble free on the second day. The final four stages included an impressive victory on the sixth stage.  

It gave Jones and Thomson their first class victory and saw them complete the season in second overall in the points standings for the Morizo Challenge Cup.  

The result capped a fine week for the young driver, who was also confirmed for the second year running in Toyota GAZOO Racing’s final ‘cut’ of just five drivers for the final of the 2025 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program.  

“It’s really cool to be winners of the MCC class at the final round, I feel it’s been a long time coming this year. All of the little things finally worked out and we maybe had a bit of luck on our side at this round too.  

“It’s been so much hard work by the team and everyone at home to make this happen. For us this is our last round and that’s a little bit sad after my first major international competition but it’s a great way to end a big year.  

“This Japanese campaign was all about learning and development and we’ve certainly learned so much, but to finish it off with a win – which was one of our goals at the start of the season – is a great way for myself and Bayden to finish.”  

Jones was full of praise for all of his sponsors and supporters but saved a special word for Thomson, who has also had a very challenging season in the co-driver’s seat.  

“Bayden as always has been an absolute champion, thanks mate for all the sacrifice and hard work it has taken this year.”  

Jones now switches his attention to his second attempt at securing a long-term future in the top echelon of the sport.

“Now I’ve got to switch my focus to what lies ahead in the WRC Challenge Program. I feel so much better prepared than last year and I’m going to be making sure I cover every detail and be as prepared as I can for what’s to come. To be part of Toyota Gazoo Racing would be a dream.”  

The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program was established in 2015 with the ambition to identify and develop rally drivers from Japan who can compete on the world stage. Jones qualifies as his mother is Japanese.

This weekend’s Battery Town Rally Bay of Plenty will throw a brand-new challenge at the leading Kiwi rally drivers in the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship.

For the first time in over two decades, the national championship will visit some iconic stages in the Matahina Forest that were made internationally famous in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“We haven’t been in there for a long time,” rally organiser Dave Loughlin explained.

“We are in the Matahina Forest, where rally hasn’t been for 20 years.

“Very few of the top drivers will have experienced this forest.”

Loughlin said drivers can expect a traditional forestry test but on roads that will hold up well to being used twice.

“The roads are well drained, hard based in most cases,” he said.

“We are using a mix of major forestry roads and some smaller roads to join them together. It is soft rolling country – not too steep.

“They are generally well-maintained. Like all forest, it is reasonably fast.

“The Nursery Rd stage has an amazing surface on it that has good metal grip, that has had lots of traffic.”

Battery Town Rally Bay of Plenty begins with a ceremonial start at Mitre 10 Mega in downtown Tauranga on Friday evening before a full day of action on Saturdaycovering 165 kilometres in 10 high speed special stages. 

New Zealand rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard notched up another rally win in their bid to win their first 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC) title.  

The pair won both days of the Adelaide Hills Rally in their Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car, 3 to 5 October in South Australia, earning the maximum 50 points per day to take their respective drivers’ and co-drivers’ championship points total to 470, 85 points ahead of closest rivals Lewis Bates and Anthony Mcloughlin.  

“All in all, a pretty good weekend,” says Paddon. “It’s always about managing things, trying to build a gap in the mornings on the first loop, then manage things like tyres in the afternoons. A weekend of management is what I’ve called this one in terms of tyres and strategy, and we did what we needed to do to secure the win.”  

Saturday’s competition on the rolling roads through the Adelaide Hills saw Paddon and Harry Bates take three stage wins apiece in the first six stages, with Paddon holding the lead by just 4.4 seconds. Then, Harry crashed out of the first of four early evening stages. Paddon took one more stage win while Lewis Bates took the other three to finish the day 20.7 seconds adrift of Paddon.  

Winning the Saturday Heat extended Paddon and Kennard’s lead at the top of the standings to 81 points over Lewis and McLoughlin.  

“Obviously mission accomplished in the respect of winning Heat 1 and extending the championship lead, but it was a real shame that Harry had his little off road excursion today,” Paddon said. “It was obviously a close fight, and I think we would have been pushing each other right to the end. With Harry on the side of the road, we sort of backed off a bit in the evening just to look after tyres. But in saying that, Louis has not been far away all day as well, so it’s close.”  

Sunday’s itinerary featured eight stages, with Paddon winning five to secure another Heat win, 31.6 seconds ahead of Lewis Bates who secured maximum bonus points by winning the power stage. Fellow Hyundai driver Alex Rullo took third place in both heats.  

Of Sunday’s stages, Paddon said: “Every time we go to new stages, we seem to find a bit more performance, so we always said that the 15km stage (SS12 and SS14) was our target and winning that one really did the damage (in terms of tyres) for us.  

“It’s a very fast stage where I think everyone was in tyre management mode, including Clayton Hoy who won. When rallies are like this and require a lot of strategy, it brings in a lot of unknowns, and that’s good for everyone and good for the sport.”  

The Adelaide Hills Rally was the fifth round of the ARC’s six round championship which will conclude in Tasmania in early November, with an Endurance style event with no Heats. 100 Points for the Winner of the whole event and 10 Points for fastest on the Power Stage. So still 110 Points up for grabs.

“Being 85 points in front isn’t really a position you like to be in. I’d have preferred to either be closer or have the title wrapped up, because then you can go to Tassie and just push. But now, being in this position, we have to finish seventh or better. You’ll probably hear every little rattle and bang in the car all weekend. It makes it a lot more stressful than it probably should be.”  

Keep up with all PRG’s news and results via the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/paddonracinggroup.   

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, TrailLite, Hankook, Z Energy, Blaster and Signbiz.

Kiwi rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard are staying focused on learning new stages and delivering the best result they can when they contest the Adelaide Hills Rally in their Hyundai i20 Rally2 car. Running 3 to 5 October in South Australia, this event is the fifth and penultimate round of the 2025 EROAD Australian Rally Championship (ARC).  

Paddon says despite leading their respective drivers’ and co-drivers’ championships by 71 points, he and Kennard will take the same approach they always do.  

“We’ll push as hard as we can and try to deliver a good result,” says Paddon, who won the Ashley Forest Rallysprint in North Canterbury last weekend in his Hyundai i20 AP4++ car.

“Until the last round, it’s all about collecting as many points as we can. No one gets to put the championship hat on until the last rally.”  

Paddon says he’s heard a lot of good things about this rally. “The stages look a lot smoother and more flowing, similar to New Zealand. That’s where we are comfortable and should work well with our car. We will have a small pre-event test to dial the car in, and use the lessons from the last rally to continue that momentum.  

“Like most events this year, many of the stages are the same for the local competitors, but we are enjoying the challenge of pushing ourselves on unfamiliar roads.”  

Hosted in the scenic Adelaide Hills regions, around the town of Mt Barker, the rally comprises 18 stages and 160.5 competitive kilometres split across Saturday and Sunday. Local crews have a couple of new stages to learn, while Paddon and Kennard will be competing on all stages for the first time. The Adelaide Hills Rally is the only council/shire road-based event in the 2025 ARC calendar, the other events typically using forestry roads.  

Teams can participate on a test stage on Thursday with reconnaissance of all 18 stages on Friday before a rally show in Mt Barker on Friday evening, including the ballot draw for the top three starting positions for Saturday’s Leg 1. Paddon and Kennard are seeded number two, with their closest competitors Harry Bates/Coral Taylor and Lewis Bates/Anthony Mcloughlin seeded first and third respectively.  

Like the first three ARC events of the 2025 championship, this is a sprint round where points are available based on finishing position on each day. The standings going into this weekend’s event are Paddon with 366 points, Lewis Bates 295 and Harry Bates 278. Each day’s winner earns 50 points and the fastest through the Power Stage on Sunday a bonus 10 points.  

Keep up with all PRG’s news and results via the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/paddonracinggroup.   

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, TrailLite, Hankook, Z Energy, Blaster and Signbiz.