The BRC Racing Team’s Hayden Paddon is within touching distance of a second consecutive ERC title, having won the JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion, which ended yesterday. The New Zealander was in great form over the weekend, to the extent he also won the power stage. He is the seventh winner in the seven rallies held so far and with good results in previous rallies, he now has a 27 point lead over the second placed driver, with 35 points still up for grabs.
With fellow countryman John Kennard in the co-driver’s seat, Paddon started Sunday’s decisive stage with a lead of 1 minute 18 seconds, built up over the day, in part thanks to a well thought out choice and management of tyres, which meant he was able to deal with the slippery and treacherous surface when rain fell in SS13.
“It was a great weekend,” commented Paddon. “It all went like clockwork. The credit goes to the team for the way it set up the car, to the tyres that worked well in difficult conditions and of course to my co-driver.”
Another noteworthy performance came from Jon Armstrong and his Pirelli-shod M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2, who on Sunday made up the ground lost on the first day to finish sixth, also taking the win on SS12, his first in an ERC event, which brought Pirelli’s win total to 13 from the 14 on the schedule.
THE TYRES
The tyres fitted to the winner’s car and to those of the other Pirelli drivers were from the P Zero tarmac range, made up of the hard RA5A, the medium P Zero RA7D, the soft P Zero RA7+C and the RWC rain tyre. The RA7D saw the most use over the weekend, and on Saturday it played an important role in combination with the hard.