Driving his Hyundai i20 AP4+, Paddon with co-driver John Kennard, were in a class of their own, leading out the more than 110 teams, which headed south from Dunedin, tackling the special stages in fine weather.
Rangiora brother and sister pairing Matt and Nicole Summerfield had a solid debut in their new Mitsubishi Mirage to sit third after day one, 38.5secs behind Hunt.
Dunedin’s Emma Gilmour and co-driver Anthony McLoughlin are only trailing them by 2.2secs in Gilmour’s Suzuki Swift AP4 and if all goes well on tomorrow’s nine stages, they could be looking at a podium in her home event.
Over in the Otago Classic Rally there was no sign of the international star drivers on the leaderboard, with three Kiwis battling it out in the top three positions.
Kaikoura’s Regan Ross (Ford Escort RS1800) and Samantha Gray lead Dean Buist and Karl Celeste by 16.9secs in Buist’s new VW Golf GTi and his fellow Canterbury driver John Silcock and Grant Marra in a Mazda RX8 are over a minute behind in third.
Norwegian WRC star Mads Ostberg had a mechanical issue in the first stage and missed the following two stages while his Ford Escort RS1800 was repaired. He rejoined on stage four and blazed through to take four stage wins this afternoon.
Grant Blackberry and Ric Chalmers (Mitsubishi Evo X) top the Allcomers Rally category, while Gareth McLachlan and Tanya Jackson are ahead in the Otago Classic 4WD rally in his Mitsubishi Galant VR4.
Tomorrow’s stages take the teams north of Dunedin before they finish around 3pm at the Dunedin Railway station.
