Australian / New Zealand 2025 Championships

[saco0o]

ARC - Australian Rally Championship calendar:
Round 1 – March 21-23 – Rally of Canberra
Round 2 – May 23-25 – Forest Rally
Round 3 – July 4-6 – Rally Queensland
Round 4 – August 10-8 – Gippsland Rally
Round 5 – October 3-5 – Adelaide Hills Rally
Round 6 – November 7-9 – Rally Tasmania

NZRC - New Zealand Rally Championship Calendar:
Rd 1: Otago Rally April 4-6
Rd 2: South Canterbury Rally May 10
Rd 3: Canterbury Rally June 1
Rd 4: Rally Coromandel August 23
Rd 5: Rally Bay of Plenty October 11
Rd 6: International Rally of Whangarei November 7-9


the Australian Championship is under new management and it was rebranded as "ARC".
- here the little video they released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMFtMk7qJ_o

both championships offer some live stages, live interviews and decent highlights on their youtube pages! you can watch the '24 rounds during december while we wait for Monte Carlo! hehe

- ARC: https://www.youtube.com/@arcrally/videos
- NZRC: https://www.youtube.com/@NewZealandRallyChampionship/videos

[Humber]

The 2025 NZRC starts with the Otago Rally & combined Classic rally over two days. Following the pattern of 2024 with 3 South Island events, with a break and then three North Island rallies. Southland is replaced by Canterbury which can be frosty in June. Likewise the Day Breaker rally, Manawatu has been replaced by Rally Coromandel.(I'm sure some competitors prefer Day Breaker to Coromandel, but there might be less sheep on the road further north) The season ends the same way as 2024 with Bay Of Plenty followed by Whangarei.

2025 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship Calendar:

Rd 1: Otago Rally April 4-6
Rd 2: South Canterbury Rally May 10
Rd 3: Canterbury Rally June 1
Rd 4: Rally Coromandel August 23
Rd 5: Rally Bay of Plenty October 11
Rd 6: International Rally of Whangarei November 7-9

https://nzrallychamps.co.nz/calendar-for-2025-revealed-with-two-returning-rounds

[saco0o]

from dirtfish: https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/paddon-attracted-by-wrcs-future-but-not-as-a-driver/

(...) "With two ERC titles from the past two seasons, Paddon has his sights set on a new challenge in 2025: the Australian Rally Championship.

“That’s what we’re targeting, yeah,” he confirmed to DirtFish, “but it’s just a matter of trying to get the finances in place at the moment, which is not so easy in the current time. So, yeah, probably a little bit more focus on this side of the world.” (...)

interesting!

[Humber]

One of the OG Pirelli Star rally driver group has passed away. Mark Tapper (NZ) is reported to have died.

Tapper grew up near Mad Mike Whidett (drifter and sometimes circuit racer and exhibitionist).

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/541644/tributes-flow-following-the-death-of-kiwi-rally-driver-mark-tapper

[saco0o]

oh mate. way too young! thats really sad. RIP

[Humber]

Rally of Canberra this weekend (March 21st to 23rd) Hayden Paddon taking on the Australians in their backyard. Canberra is home turf for the Bates Toyota Team with over 30 years of experience on the roads around Canberra.

Bosch to sponsor 2025 ARC

https://www.rally.com.au/bosch-backs-arc-for-2025-season/
Canberra Rally Saturday 22nd March, Heat 1, 109 km of gravel stages
Harry Bates took right rear wheel off 2km from end of Stage 2. (30 mins in the video, limps to stage finish)

After the 4 morning stages Paddon (with a new lightweight haircut) 11 seconds on Lewis Bates (2nd), Scott Pedder 45 seconds down, but has been fast in the improved Skoda Fabia RS Rally 2 (used R5 Skoda previously)

4 afternoon stages to follow.

Paddon eased through the afternoon stages (repeats of the morning stages) in warm conditions to win Heat 1. Paddon said the swept roads were better.

Paddon 1hr 12 minutes 46 seconds,2nd, Lewis Bates 29.7 seconds from a consistent run, car tweaked improvements for the afternoon. 3rd was Scott Pedder 1 min 27.5, slowed a bit by a rear shock absorber issue.

Heat 2 Sunday 23 March
First stage of the day. Stage 9. Paddon retired after hitting animal.
Stage 9 won by Harry Bates.
Heat 2) 1 Harry Bates 2 Lewis Bates 3 Scott Pedder

Rally of Canberra overall 1. Lewis Bates (wins his first home rally, also hit a Kangaroo like Paddon but with less damage) 2. Scott Pedder

[saco0o]

https://www.youtube.com/@arcrally/streams

for the curious fans trying to follow Hayden, the livestreams are here!
its a national championship so dont expect rallyTV coverage levels, eh
highlights of the full event will probably be avaliable during the week! we'll be posting here, if anyone is interested

[saco0o]

some of the Otago stages were live on the YT channel
https://www.youtube.com/@NewZealandRallyChampionship/streams

No full highlights from any of the races from Aussie and NZ championships so far. I hope the new australian promoter doesnt cut off the highlights they used to have

[saco0o]

NZ championship - Rd.1 Otago - almost 1 hour Highlights is out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyApModI_U4
on the channel you can find more individual stuff, like the "4wd highlights" only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANlzcUO8Gm8
or the 2wd, historic, etc...

[saco0o]

super disapointed with australian championship promoter not putting out highlights on yt. i mean... WHY TO HIDE? its a national championship, u r not gonna get loads of international fans to pay to watch, eh?

on the NZ champ, some live stages are on yt from rd.2 last week event, highlights to be uploaded next week

[Humber]

Round Two of the 2025 Australian Rally Championship. Forest Rally, Western Australia ( on the ball bearing gravel of the old WRC event)

Saturday Heat one - 1 Paddon - Hyundai - Hyundai Rally2 2 Scott Pedder - Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 3 Lewis Bates - Toyota Yaris Rally2

Sunday Heat two 1 Paddon - Hyundai Rally2 2 Harry Bates - Toyota Yaris Rally2 3 Tom Kristensson - Skoda Fabia R5 (close fought heat for the top 3)Bates 5.4 seconds behind Paddon, TK 6.7 seconds behind Paddon.

[saco0o]

round 2 of the new zealand championship - top class 4wd highlights
as always they do a good job introducing the drivers and building the story of the weekend
cant go wrong. highlights for the other classes also on their yt page
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU8Q9Se6gtY

[Humber]

Longer distance Australian trial rally events have a few new editions in coming years.

The last day of the 2025 'Great Inland Endurance Trial' run over ten days and 5000km, ends today. Small entry. A few competitors have been posting.

The next is in 2027. There is a 50 year anniversary ' round australia' event planned for 2029 as a "Reliability Retrial".

https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/legendary-holden-trial-winner-returns-to-the-forest/

https://www.facebook.com/reliabilityretrial29

[saco0o]

NZRC Round 3 Canterbury Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcavQUgHRYc

[Humber]

After a quiet winter the NZ Rally Championship returned to the Coromandel where the rally was last held in 2019.
A one day rally was held on Saturday 23rd August, 2025.

NZRC Round 4 - Dayle ITM Gold Rush Rally Coromandel Highlights 44 minutes.

https://youtu.be/4qCtN0z4dpY?si=4sWIZNO4TkLo4B47

5th Round was run on Satuday 11th October and the final is in November (7-9th) at Whangarei.

[Humber]

NZ Targa 2025 is being run 15-19th October, 2025. The 30th anniversary event has been hampered by landslides, floods and torrential rain the day before the event commenced, which have cut off roads.
1 stage cancelled on Wednesday 15th, 4 stages cancelled on Thursday 16th, could be 4 again on Friday.
https://youtu.be/CZGNtnTxQBE?si=WlqigTDcYlPUxrRQ (news reel with water and landslides)

Saturday was a better day with all 7 stages being run to varying degrees.
Action started before the first stage with the overnight 3rd placed car's driver not being able to find the keys for the car #640 Porsche, before the start. The keys were located when the field had moved off.
Later this may have unfortunately contributed to the car #640 leaving the road 2/3rds of the way into the day's first stage. Fortunately, the crew was ok.

Two other experienced competitors went off, one in the days' 3rd stage and another in the 6th stage. Both crew reported ok.
The 7th stage was interrupted near the end after 2/3rds of the competitive field had been through.

Sunday's 7 stages have been run with a few final day dropouts.

This year's 2025 Targa NZ was won by the Australian crew of Paul Dowie and John Allen in a Porsche GT3 RS (5 hours six minutes & 5.5 seconds). They were a minute clear (1.16.3) clear of Dave Rogers & Shane Reynolds in a Targa spec Mitsubishi Evo X. Third went to the NZ veterans Charlie Evans & Carol Liston - RX7.

[saco0o]

and paddon leading the aussie championship! if he wins it i wonder what will he plan for 2026! america?

[Humber]

Bay of Plenty Round of the 2025 NZRC highlights video. A close battle between the regular contenders at the top. Darker than expected by most competitors on the opening stage followed by dust on the next stage. A significant distance of the event was run in the Matahina Forest, that was last used 20 years ago in the International Rally of Rotorua era.

https://youtu.be/dGjpvC6tSug?si=aXjTDFBlbChcjyUI

NZRC podium for the rally was R Stokes, B Hunt and J Stokes.



Paddon was tyre testing during the overall event and had the lowest time followed by Mike Young in 2nd.

[saco0o]

tnx! i checked yesterday for rd 5 highlights, there was nothing yet, i thought "maybe in november" haha nice
nzrc production is really good, i wish erc & rally america were all more like that on the highlights package.
idk how they get the money to do that, since its a small championship, but congrats on them. years following this series like that. shame the aussie championship is not putting out their good highlights anymore too =/

[Humber]

Final round of the 2025 NZRC this week. 7th -9th November. The Vertex Oil International Rally of Whangarei will be held over 2 days and 18 stages. Day 1 - Saturday 8th,a long day run west and south west further out of Whangarei are 10 stages. 5 gravel road stages (3 repeated) and a super special (Pohe Island) run and repeated in the evening. Day 2 - Sunday 9th is run south west but closer to Whangarei. 8 stages which are 4 gravel road stages repeated.

If these stages are like some of the stages used in the past for local rallies & international rallies, this could be a memorable event.

https://www.rallywhangarei.co.nz/

Changes before Rally of Whangarei. Robbie Stokes had his result at Bay of Plenty changed to excluded. Ben Hunt has a significant points lead prior to Whangarei.

https://nzrallychamps.co.nz/stokes-excluded-from-rally-bay-of-plenty/

[Humber]

This weekend is also the Final round of the 2025 Australian Rally Championship. The Buckby Motors Rally Tasmania is to run out of Burnie on the northern coast of Tasmania. 7th-9th November.

https://www.rally.com.au/tasmania/

https://www.burnie.tas.gov.au/Community/Whats-On-Events/2025/Buckby-Motors-Rally-Tasmania

[saco0o]

hayden's title to lose!