Holding the painstakingly crafted first place trophy aloft at the podium ceremony in the Nevis Valley, he confessed what the consequences would have been if his Hyundai i20 AP4 had not clocked the fastest total of the best time from day one on Saturday, plus the best time from day two yesterday.
"Probably a good thing we got this, because our engineer Rory built all the trophies. He gave me a pretty stern warning, if we don’t win this, he ain’t coming back to work on Monday," Paddon joked.
The Cromwell-based former WRC driver’s fastest of three runs on Saturday over the hot, dusty 6km road was 2min 52.80sec but he was unable to match it yesterday after intermittent rain left the hillclimb slippery and recorded 2:56.50, giving him a total of 5:49.30.
"I need a benchmark for next year. The car has run absolutely faultlessly this weekend. Huge credit to the guys, they finally got this engine sorted. The car was a dream to drive. That was the easiest part of the weekend, to be fair," Paddon said.
Rotorua’s Sloan Cox will be travelling north with a "big smile on the way home" after many hours burning the midnight oil to get his Mitsubishi Evo 8 hillclimb special running right, paid off. He amassed a total time of 6:13.50 to earn the runner-up trophy. It was a family effort as his sister Tarryn, who co-drove for him many years ago, got back into the navigator’s seat to call the corners for him.
Kaiapoi’s Job Quantock was pleasantly surprised to round out the podium in his rally-spec Skoda AP4 with a 6:18.50. An unrestricted turbo gave him between 400hp and 500hp and made the car a "bit of a handful" but ultimately a third-place finisher.
Absolute credit goes to the courageous Ian Ffitch, who wrangled his custom-built 1000cc Superquad up the hillclimb. Swinging himself across the seat and moving his body forward and backwards to balance the centre of gravity and maintain traction, the 49-year-old Amberley rider said racing the four-wheeled motorbike was certainly a workout and "gets the adrenaline going."
Oamaru’s Scott Simpson rounded out the top five in his VW Polo.
Andrew Graves, of Gore, demonstrated his always-adept driving ability, finishing second in the 4WD rally class and an impressive seventh overall in his older model Mitsubishi Evo 3, with his son Hayden on-board as co-driver. Local Bannockburn driver Richard Ford won the 0-1300cc 2WD, class in his Toyota Starlet.
Inclement weather meant the planned three runs yesterday were shortened to two to ensure access out of the Nevis Valley was not compromised.
Paddon thanked the region’s car clubs and the volunteers for helping the event to run successfully and made a promise to anyone wanting to enter next year.
"There’s certainly lots we can improve on and make it bigger and better for the future," he said.
