Australian / New Zealand 2025 Championships

**Humber** · 2nd November 2025, 22:43

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/Commun...Rally-Tasmania

**saco0o** · 2nd November 2025, 23:38

hayden's title to lose!

**Humber** · 5th November 2025, 19:05

Route and dates for the 2026 NZ Silver Fern Marathon Rally have been announced. Run around the North Island between the 27th November to 4th December, 2026.

Planned Route distance of 2700km (total) with 1055km of gravel special stage and 1645km of touring. Plans can change via forces majeures etc. Could be very dusty and warm at this time of year.

https://silverfernrally.co.nz/ (interim website)

27th November - documentation (overnight stay) Rotorua
28th November - Bay of Plenty stages (ons) Rotorua
29th November - Stages out to the East Coast (ons) Gisborne
30th November - Loop of stages (ons) Gisborne
1st December - Stages on the way south to the Hawkes Bay (ons) Napier
2nd December - Central? gravel stages (ons) Palmerston North
3rd December - Stages from the past (Motogard, NZRC, Taihape, Day Breaker etc?) (ons) Ohakune
4th December - Gravel stages on the way back to Rotorua for the end of event function & prize giving.

**Humber** · 8th November 2025, 04:24

Day 1 Rally of Whangarei - update going in the Super Special Pohe Island.

(1) Robbie Stokes 1hour 18min 26.2 (2)younger brother Jack Stokes 0.6 seconds (3) Mike Young 13.7 sec (4) Ben Hunt 40.2 sec

After starting in dust in the early morning, stage 8 - the last country road gravel stage of the day was cancelled due to flooding after heavy rain.

Update for Rally Tasmania - after 7 of the 8 stages for day 1.

(1)Harry Bates 55mins 36.1 (2) Hayden Paddon 5.4 seconds (3) Scott Pedder 8.5 seconds (4)younger brother Lewis Bates 34.1 seconds

**Humber** · Yesterday, 04:00

Day 2 - Rally of Whangarei. at the end.

(1) Robbie Stokes 2hours 35 mins 8.6 secs (2) Ben Hunt 1min 15.7+ (3) Jack Hawkeswood 1min33.6+ (4) Jack Stokes

Summary - Hunt - 2025 NZRC champion(*before confirmation). The super special at the end of Day 1 changed a few things. Jack Stokes was delayed by windscreen wiper failure. Mike Young (allcomers - nonchampionship) had driveshaft failure in the first super special run so did not complete the day.

Day2 - A battle between the two Stokes brothers for most of the day with Ben Hunt behind them. Jack Stokes - punctured on ss16 which dropped him down from 2nd. Mike Young(allcomers non-championship) came back to set 2 fastest stage times near the end. Jack Stokes won 4, Robbie Stokes won 2. Jack Stokes is down to run a Skoda Fabia Rally 2 evo for 2026. Jack Hawkeswood was getting faster in the first rally in NZ for the Rally2 GR Yaris.

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Day 2 Rally Tasmania

(1) Harry Bates (2) Lewis Bates (3) Hayden Paddon so Paddon - is Australian Rally Champion for 2025 (*before confirmation)

Paddon was required to nurse the i20N home through the final short stage 14 with a failed front left shock absorber. The shock absorber caused a 3 minute time loss in the previous long stage.

**saco0o** · Yesterday, 20:43

fffffffffckkkk yeaaah boyzzzzz
so happy for paddon. the guy is unstopable! next step: america or wrc with hyundai replacing ott? =P

oh, also Ben won the NZ title, right? thats awesome too! i really wish to see him trying to compete in ERC, just to see how it goes. bates too! if i were rich i'd buy two msports and run these two in ERC in my team

**Humber** · Today, 01:39

Wonder if another of the crossroads of HP's rally career is approaching. Kia (the South Korean car company part owned by Hyundai) is outselling Hyundai in both New Zealand and Australia. Kia is claimed to offer a more sporty image than Hyundai? The Hyundai Rally2 though it won rallies in Australia seemed to be hard pushed for a variety of reasons to stay with the Rally2 Toyotas that had drivers/ codrivers with greater local Australian knowledge.

Without the ongoing parts development for gravel roads from the Hyundai Motorsport Operation for the Rally2 i20N, the car is likely to become dated.

Kia and Hyundai combined sell 140+K car per year in Australia. Skoda are projected to sell 5K vehicles in Aus in 2025. The illogical choice would be to have HP drive a Skoda Rally2 RS in the 2026 ARC with Kia and Hyundai support.

The US seems a difficult option. Between the SUVs and Electric cars that Hyundai/ Kia make/ sell in the US there are only limited promotion options. In 2026, Kia are to release a petrol/ gasoline engine K4 hatchback that has a 2720mm? wheelbase. That could be one of the few selections for American Rally Association type rally conversion.

**saco0o** · Today, 11:53

hmmmmm but these national championships normally are not sooo dependent on this market aspect, no?
he will probably just take his R5 wherever he decides to compete, i'd guess.
idk, no idea tbh.
maybe he also retires and become just a team owner? i remember reading something about that, but after winning 5 titles in 5 years (is that right?) i would doubt he want to stop! hehe