It came down to a couple of heart beats or .38 of a second after two days of racing.
In a battle that could have gone either way, Cromwells Hayden Paddon vied with Sloane Cox of Rotorua, as the pair tried to go just that little bit faster than the other on each of their final runs up and down the one mile long Ashley Rallysprint course on Sunday.
Paddon was the first under the minute barrier on day one of the 2022 Ashley Forest Rallysprint.
But Cox set the cat amongst the pigeons early on Sunday morning with a strong 57.92 to lead Paddon at the end of qualifying when the field was reduced to the top 32.
From then it was just a matter of holding their cars together and turning in fast times as the fields were cut again and again.
Paddon driving his fully electric Hyundai Kona EV, rallied after a series of up and down qualifying runs to set the fastest time of 55.54 seconds, just 0.38 ahead of Cox’s Mitsubishi Evo 8 hillclimb specials time of 55.92.
It was Paddon’s third win at the event and the first driving his fully electric Hyundai Kona EV.
Paddon says “It's been a really good battle with Sloan all weekend.
He had a few problems but once he got them sorted, it was super close between us.
‘‘To be honest, it’s always more enjoyable to battle like this with close times each run, and he certainly pushed us.
I think we both have more in the tank for the future, but we put it all on the line for the last run and did the best we could.’’
Former champion Sloane Cox says he was thrilled to have made it through to the final and to have been so competitive with his purpose built car.
‘‘The car ran at its best all weekend. I made a few little mistakes but I am thrilled with how it all went.
‘‘I was happy with how close Hayden and I were all weekend.’’
