The New Zealanders finished the 216.6km of competition across two days with a handy margin of 1min 6.8sec over defending champions Harry Bates and Coral Taylor.
Run on forestry roads near the town of Heyfield, the rally featured four night stages on Saturday evening, the first time in more than 10 years that an ARC event included forest stages in darkness.
Paddon and Kennard had almost a clean sweep, clocking nine stage wins to finish the day more than 60sec ahead of Bates.
Conditions were described as trying and accurate driving was required to find the best grip.
Paddon said the Hyundai i20 N Rally 2 car was running the best it had all season.
"We did most of our heavy lifting during the first loop in daylight," Paddon said.
"I really enjoyed the night stages as well, but it was tricky, especially when you are protecting the lead."
With eight stages to run on Sunday, Paddon’s goal was to preserve his lead and aim for maximum points.
Bates and brother Lewis, who held third place, fought hard all day. While Paddon and Kennard won most of the day’s stages, Harry Bates secured three stage wins.
The New Zealanders did not stop the pressure, winning the day-ending power stage to earn maximum points from the event and extend their championship lead with two rounds left to run.
"It’s been a perfect weekend and a perfect result," Paddon said.
"This being an endurance round means it required a slightly different approach to the first three sprint events. Once we’d built up a lead on day one here, it was a matter of maintaining that through Sunday’s stages knowing we wanted to up the ante on the final power stage for maximum bonus points.
"All in all, the car was a dream to drive all weekend. The team has done an amazing job with the preparation and running it, and John in the car, as always, did an awesome job."
The next ARC round is in Adelaide in October.
— Allied Media
