Paddon and long-time co-driver John Kennard saw their bid for glory at the Rally of Canberra derailed by an unexpected obstacle.
The New Zealand pair had worked hard to win the opening day of the rally in their Hyundai i20N Rally2 car, but encountering a mob of kangaroos at high speed on the opening stage of day two took the pair out of contention for the overall win.
It was a deflating end to their first full crack at the six-round Australian Rally Championship.
The weekend opened with a rally show in Canberra before crews headed to high-speed forestry roads west of the city for the first day’s action.
The second day’s special stages were all to the east with about 223km of competitive action in total for the ARC’s opening round.
An interesting feature of the ARC is that the top three seeded drivers participate in a ballot to determine their running order for both days.
Rally of Canberra is one of the sprint rounds, which means competitors can earn points each day depending on their classification for that day.
"We drew No 1 in the road position ballot which put us slightly on the back foot from the outset," Paddon said.
Paddon and Kennard finished Saturday morning’s four stages with an overall lead of 11.6sec over Lewis Bates.
Defending ARC champion Harry Bates was temporarily out of the overall running following an offroad incident.
"Once we corrected the tyres for the afternoon loop, the car was much better and we were able to be back on stage winning pace," Paddon, who recorded his first three stage wins of his debut ARC season and ended the day 29.7sec ahead of Bates, said.
However, the second day in Canberra did not go to plan for Paddon.
"We encountered a mob of kangaroos on Sunday morning’s first stage.
‘‘At 160kmh over a crest, there was absolutely nothing we could do to avoid one of them in the middle of the road.’’
The Kiwis were fine and the car was repairable, but they were not able to rejoin the rally for the final power stage — offering double points — as rules dictate cars must have completed 65% of the day.
‘‘It’s just one of those unfortunate things that sometimes happens in motorsport. We have to take it on the chin, reset, and go again for the next round.’’
The next ARC round is in Western Australia in May. — APL
