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Paddon and Jagger lead Rising Stars points after Otago

Geraldine’s Hayden Paddon and Whangarei’s Ben Jagger top the points’ tables for Rally New Zealand’s Rising Stars Development and International Awards after the recent Otago Rally.

Paddon, who won the event outright, also scored the maximum ten points in the International Award; the points earned relate to where Paddon finished on each of the rally’s 14 stages relative to fellow International Award aspirants Kieran Hall, from Nelson, and Sloan Cox, from Rotorua. Hall, with nine points, and Cox, with eight points, have only nominated the Otago event to count towards their Rising Stars’ totals to date, while Paddon has elected to earn Rising Stars’ points in two events.

In the Development Award standings, Jagger is the only competitor to have nominated two rallies in which to earn points. Jagger now has 19 points, compared to Auckland’s Patrick Malley with ten points and the two more young Nelson drivers Ben Hunt and Dominick Unterberger on nine and eight points respectively.

The two new Rising Stars driver development programmes provide the eventual winners with expert support and funding worth $50,000 towards the drivers’ 2010 rally campaigns. Competitors nominate two New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) events in addition to two compulsory events in which to collect points towards their desired award. The two compulsory events are June’s NAC Insurance International Rally of Whangarei and August’s Possum Bourne Memorial Rally. Drivers must be under 26 years of age on 1 January 2009, a member of a MotorSport New Zealand-affiliated car club, a New Zealand resident, and enter all five 2009 NZRC events to be eligible to register for the Rising Stars programme.

With the NAC Insurance International Rally of Whangarei the next round of the New Zealand series – and a compulsory event for Rising Stars contenders – the competition is going to heat up, says Rally New Zealand chairman Chris Carr.

“Two Christchurch drivers join the bid for the International Award. We welcome Josh Marston and Matthew Jansen into the fray, and yet another young Nelson driver Daniel Harris joins the Development Award field,” says Carr.

“We have been fortunate to get to know Ben Hunt, Dominick Unterberger and Daniel Harris during the Rising Stars Scholarship challenge which took place earlier this year. All three were amongst our top twelve candidates who competed in an intense two-day shootout. Ben won the inaugural Rising Stars Scholarship and is now competing in the front-wheel-drive class of the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship in a fully-funded Ford Fiesta as part of his prize.

“We are absolutely delighted to see Ben’s progress in full rally competition so far. After some mechanical challenges in Hawke’s Bay, Ben set several top-15 stage times. In this most recent event on Otago’s famous rally stages, Ben performed very consistently – often the fastest Rising Stars Development Award competitor against Ben Jagger, who has a whole season’s worth more experience in these cars than he does. Ben [Hunt] finished a credible 14th NZRC competitor in his fourth-ever rally.”

The NAC Insurance International Rally of Whangarei takes place from 5 to 7 June and will see ten Rising Stars entrants – five in the International Award and five in the Development Award – striving for maximum points towards some of the most significant prizes in local motorsport - $50,000 plus professional support and mentoring for the two successful drivers.