Hayden Paddon did what he set out to do at the annual Ashley Forest Rallysprint at the weekend.

The Cromwell-based rally star set a record of 51.2sec for the short, intense rallysprint.

He won the event for a seventh time in his Hyundai i20 AP4++.

Paddon’s clocked his record time at his final attempt on Sunday, beating the record of 52sec even he set for the 1.7km hillclimb course in the same car in 2023.

“Really great to come away with a new record,” Paddon said.

“A shame to miss our goal of setting a sub-50sec time this weekend. A few things didn’t fall our way, but we tried.

“The record is something to show for the huge team effort we’ve put in this weekend. It just means we’ll have to come back for a third attempt at setting a sub-50 time next year.

“We’ll keep having fun pushing the envelope and seeing what we can develop over the next 12 months.”

The Ratec Motorsport-run club event has attracted hundreds of New Zealand motorsport competitors, including plenty of big names, since it first ran in 1979.

Competitors complete three qualifying runs on Saturday and another one on Sunday morning before going into knockout rounds.

After a minor mechanical issue in the first qualifying run in the Hyundai, Paddon was quickly on the pace, setting a 55.53sec time for his second run, getting progressively faster with each attempt at the short uphill/downhill course.

The Paddon Racing Group crew ran six cars at this year’s event: two cars for Paddon — the Hyundai and a Group A Impreza — and Dunedin driver Emma Gilmour, who finished fifth in a Suzuki Swift, and one each for Steward Reid and Spencer Bourne/Josh Cooper.

Paddon and PRG are supporting Possum Bourne’s 28-year-old son to have a greater involvement in rallying, with the goal for Spencer to compete at the 2027 Otago Rally after completing various test days and development work with the team to develop his skills and experience.

Gilmour relished her double duties at Ashley Forest.

The Dunedin rally driver switched between her Citroen C3 and the Suzuki Swift, which had been tuned to 350+ horsepower, to run in the unlimited 4WD category.
“It’s been a really enjoyable weekend with both cars doing an amazing job,” Gilmour said.

“When I got to the top 16, I had to decide which car was going to count from then onwards.

“I could have continued with the Citroen and tried to win the rally class, as it had been competitive all weekend, but I decided on trying to get into the top four with the Suzuki.”

In the top 16 elimination run, Gilmour was thrilled to go under 1min for the first time in the Suzuki, clocking 59.33sec.

She improved again to post 59.12sec for fifth.

“I really wanted to get into the top four and just missed out but I had a heap of fun. Ashley Forest Rallysprint is such a wonderful event.”

One of New Zealand motorsport’s longest winning runs came to an end.

Mosgiel driver Chris Hey had won a remarkable 16 straight titles in his Toyota MR220 in the 2WD category at Ashley Forest, but he was pipped this year by Ari Pettigrew in a Porsche 911. — Allied Media