Hayden Paddon won his third International Rally of Whangarei in as many years last weekend, breaking stage records in treacherous weather.

Whangarei was Paddon’s last New Zealand Rally Championship round of the year as he heads to Europe to focus on the Production World Rally Championship.

Mitsubishi driver Dean Sumner secured third place by the hair on his neck, just 0.1 second, ahead of Patrick Malley and now stands only two points ahead of Gilmour at the top of the table.

“After yesterday [Day 1] I didn’t think it would be possible for us to finish in the top ten! It’s good, we’ve managed to reel back a bit of time today,” Sumner said.

Torrential rain battered Northland on the second day of the rally, working tyres, cars and drivers extra hard in thick mud, clay and gravel.

Dunlop motorsport manager Richard Fraser said the teams did everything they could to get the upper-hand.

“On Saturday, some competitors opted for a skinnier 195 Dunlop Rally Tyre rather than the normal 205 in order to gain an advantage in muddy conditions,” Richard said.

“There was a lot of tyre cutting on Sunday as conditions got wetter as the day went on.”

In the NZ Fiesta Sporting Trophy (Group N 2WD), Ben Hunt and Stephen Barker enjoyed a tight battle, which saw Barker’s championship lead trimmed to 23 points with Hunt claiming podium honours.

Marcus van Klink took over the series lead in Open 4WD and Matt Summerfield in Kiwi 2. In Historic Challenge Regan Ross is still in front, but the round win went to Ron Davey.

The New Zealand Rally Championship is set for some fierce competition at the penultimate round in Nelson next month (21-22 August).