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Rising Stars shine on world stage

Rally New Zealand’s trio of Rising Stars demonstrated their rallying talents during last week’s Rally New Zealand in front of a world-wide audience of around 50 million people.

“Our three current Rising Stars recipients - Hayden Paddon (International Award), Ben Jagger (Development Award) and Stephen Barker (Scholarship) have shown why they were selected to receive the mentoring and support of the Rising Stars programme this year,” says Rally New Zealand chairman Chris Carr. “Hayden and Stephen took strong wins in their respective classes while Ben set some strong stage times in what for him was a troublesome event.”

Paddon, now 23, from Geraldine, was the top-finishing New Zealand driver, finishing over two and a half minutes clear of Christchurch’s Chris West to retain the Woolf Whittaker Memorial Trophy awarded to the top Kiwi. On top of this, Paddon was equally dominant in the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC) field and took the round win honours for the New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) class as well.

On the opening day, Paddon was battling with fellow NZRC and PWRC competitor Richard Mason for the group N lead, leaving their competitors to battle for the minor placings. When Mason left the road on stage six, not even a clutch problem on the final day could stop Paddon and co-driver John Kennard from recording a dominant production car victory and 14th overall.

“We are pretty rapt; we have achieved everything we wanted to at Rally New Zealand,” said Paddon, “But we were definitely glad to reach the finish, the clutch problem kept us on our toes right to the end.”

Whangarei’s Ben Jagger struggled throughout the event with niggling mechanical problems and small driver errors Although the problems kept him off the podium, Jagger recorded several stage times that had him mixing with the best drivers in the NZRC while still learning his Subaru Impreza.

The opening day saw the 20-year-old sitting inside the top ten of the NZRC, but on the third special stage gearbox failure put a premature end to day one. Looking to make up time, Jagger’s second day started badly when he slipped off the road and punctured two tyres on the opening stage, costing him and co-driver Ben Hawkins eight minutes. Following that, he set some strong stage times inside the top ten to finish the day 18th. Seeking a solid haul of NZRC points on the final day, Jagger some strong stage times despite two spins in each pass of the infamous Whaanga Coast stage, Jagger finished the day eighth of the NZRC Group N (production class) cars for day three.

“The third day was really good, we are finally starting to get some confidence in our new car and I can’t wait to get to the next round at Whangarei now,” said Jagger.

Hamilton’s Stephen Barker finished Rally New Zealand the highest placed two-wheel-drive competitor in his very first attempt at the World Rally Championship event. A very credible 22nd overall, saw Barker and co-driver Richard Ellis  beat many of the more fancied four-wheel-drive competitors.

On the opening day, Barker adjusted to the speed of his competitors as they struck problems so that he could score maximum championship points without wearing out his limited tyre allocation and despite hitting a kerb on the Auckland Domain super special stage, took a comfortable eight minute class win.

Day two saw Barker start with an incredible time, sixth fastest of the NZRC competitors on the opening stage, the 20.82 kilometre New Franklin. The Hamiltonian then knocked on the door of the top ten for the remainder of the day, finishing eighth of the NZRC competitors for the day and another strong class win. The final day saw Barker involved in a battle right to the end of the last stage, but he was still able to complete a clean sweep for the weekend, 4.9 seconds ahead of rival Ben Hunt.

“It was a fantastic weekend, the Rising Stars Ford Fiesta performed faultlessly and we finished the weekend with maximum points and minimal damage,” said Barker.

“All three of our Rising Stars have shown great speed this weekend and, in the case of Hayden Paddon and Stephen Barker, they have come away with fantastic results. Unfortunately Ben had a tough weekend, but he has also shown what he is capable of and I am sure he will bounce back at Whangarei,” concluded Carr.

The next round of competition for the Rising Stars recipients is the International Rally of Whangarei over the weekend of 3 and 4 July. As a round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship, the Rising Stars drivers have another opportunity to benchmark themselves against international and local competition.