Hayden Paddon clinched the 2024 European Rally Championship title after finishing third at the Rally Silesia season finale.
One-time World Rally Championship event winners Paddon and co-driver John Kennard led the Polish asphalt rally heading into the final day with a 6.8s margin over Skoda duo Andrea Mabellini and co-driver Virginia Lenzi.
Armed with a 27-point lead over nearest title rival and fifth-placed Mathieu Franceschi, Paddon could afford to relax to some degree to secure the title.
Paddon and Kennard’s BRC-run Hyundai i20- led the rally until stage 11 where Mabellini overhauled the New Zealanders to grab the lead. Paddon survived a late scare when he briefly went off the road in the penultimate stage, before coming home to finish the rally in third (+19.9s).
Mabellini claimed an emotional first ERC victory while M-Sport-Ford's Jon Armstrong also fought back emotions after securing his first ERC podium in second, 18.4s adrift.
“It feels great. The [last]11 kilometres were the longest of my life. I want to thank everybody as it has been an incredible journey. We started in Rally5 then went to Rally4 and then Rally2 last year, so I’m really happy,” said Mabellini.
Armstrong added: “It is hard not to get emotional as it has been a hard year and I have been trying really hard and it is good to show now that we can finally do the pace.”
Paddon’s third place marked a successful defence of the ERC title he won last year, which seemed unlikely at times after a difficult campaign that yielded only one podium from the first six events.
However, a dominant victory in Wales at Rali Ceredigion last month put him in the box seat to clinch the championship, although budget constraints meant the Kiwi was unsure if he would compete in the Poland finale, before eventually finding the funds.
“It is a relief, it has been a season of two halves. We haven’t shown the outright speed we wanted to but through determination and grit the whole team just did it,” said Paddon.
“The biggest thing this year was to not give up, you know halfway through we were all a bit disheartened as to where we were at so it is massive credit to the team and everyone involved.”
As for the future, Paddon, who has previously stated that this year may be his last in the European Rally Championship, added: “I will take it each day at a time and if this is our last European Championship rally I would like to say a big thanks to all the fans over here that have been supporting us and making us feel at home.
“It feels like a big family and who knows what the next step is, but we have ticked this one off, so we will enjoy it.”
Elsewhere, M-Sport-Ford WRC driver Adrien Fourmaux claimed victory at Rallylegend.
Fourmaux and co-driver Alexandre Coria piloted an M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 through the San Marino rally festival’s 12 stages to claim a victory by 1m56.1s from Luca Pedersoli, driving a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC.
The podium was completed by 2008 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix winner Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn shared a Citroen C3 WRC with Esapekka Lappi’s recently retired WRC co-driver Janne Ferm.
Meanwhile, Reigning world rally champion Kalle Rovanpera signed off his first circuit racing campaign in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux by taking his third race win at the season finale at Zolder. The factory Toyota WRC driver had scored victories at Imola and the Red Bull Ring.
