But they have done what they set out to do, capping off the milestone by winning the Australian Rally Championship at the final round in Tasmania at the weekend.
Driving their Hyundai i20 Rally2, Paddon, who is based in Cromwell, and Kennard are the second all-New Zealand pairing to win the Australian championship, following the late Possum Bourne and Craig Vincent.
They won the Australian Championship title five times — consecutively from 1996 to 1999 and again in 2001 — and Bourne also won the title with Mark Stacey alongside in 2000 and 2002.
At 66 years old, Kennard may well be the oldest co-driver in the world to win a national rally title.
"To put our name alongside our hero Possum Bourne feels somewhat surreal," Paddon said.
‘‘It’s very, very cool, and something the whole team can be very proud of, especially being on the road and travelling around Australia and doing it all on what’s pretty much a shoestring budget."
Having won four of the five previous rounds, the Kiwis headed to the Burnie-based two-day rally with a lead of 85 points.
On paper, they needed to finish 12th or better to secure the championship. On the results table, Paddon and Kennard finished third overall in Tasmania.
But getting to the finish had its ups and down.
After a relatively smooth run through Saturday’s eight stages, the pair held a comfortable second place overnight, just 7.4sec behind rally leaders Harry Bates and Coral Taylor.
Finishing Sunday’s eight stages proved a little more challenging, with a broken damper on the second run through the rally’s single longest stage of 44km meaning they needed to nurse the Hyundai through to the stage finish.
The pair kept their cool and cruised through the rally’s final stage to ensure they reached the finish as planned and wrap up their first Australian rally title.
"We’re really happy to get the result over the line," Paddon said.
"There was a lot of pressure this weekend just to finish. Performance wasn’t really an aspect we needed to push for and it’s always a bit more nerve-racking when it’s like that.
‘‘Things that can happen that are outside your control, which almost did happen with a broken damper this afternoon and losing a bit of time as we nursed the car home. In the end, we got home in P3, which, in some ways, is almost irrelevant.
"It’s great to bring home the result and win the championship. It’s great to do this for the whole team. Everyone’s put in a lot of work this year."
— Allied Media
