Organisers of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship are proud to announce the 2025 calendar that includes the return of two events to the championship for the first time post-pandemic.  

The season will, as has become traditional, kick off with the two-day Otago Rally on April 4-6, based in Dunedin.

The action will then resume at the South Canterbury Rally on May 10, based in Timaru, before a return to the Canterbury Rally in Christchurch on June 1.  

Following a mid-season break, teams will move to the North Island with another returning event, Rally Coromandel, to be held on August 23 from the seaside town of Whitianga.

The series then moves to the Tauranga-based Rally Bay of Plenty on October 11, before the second two-day round of the season, International Rally of Whangarei, to round out the season on November 7-9.  

“It’s really exciting to be able to release the calendar as we work into the 2025 season,” said NZRC Championship co-ordinator Blair Bartels.  

“To be able to welcome a couple of exciting events in Canterbury Rally and Rally Coromandel back onto the calendar alongside fantastic events like Otago Rally, South Canterbury Rally, Rally Bay of Plenty and the International Rally of Whangarei is very pleasing.  

“Book ending the championship with a pair of two-day events amongst four one-day events keeps things exciting right to the final round, while splitting the events into South and North Island with a mid-season break was very well received amongst the teams this season and offers numerous benefits.  

“Of course, we’re blessed to have so many rallies of a high calibre in this country and while keeping to a six-round calendar, unfortunately they can’t all fit in. On that note, we’d like to thank the organisers of the Daybreaker Rally and Southern Lights Rally for their efforts across the last two seasons, particularly stepping up at short notice to pull together the Daybreaker Rally in 2023.”  

“We’re pleased to see another New Zealand Rally Championship set for 2025,” said MotorSport New Zealand president Deborah Day.  

“New Zealand is lucky to have the best rallying roads in the world, and with Rally Canterbury and Rally Coromandel returning to the championship calendar we get to see more of those roads contested at our highest level.”    

Championship articles are in their final stages of preparation and will be released in due course.     

2025 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship Calendar:

Rd 1: Otago Rally Friday April 4- Sunday April 6

Rd 2: South Canterbury Rally Saturday May 10

Rd 3: Canterbury Rally Sunday June 1

Rd 4: Rally Coromandel  Saturday August 23

Rd 5: Rally Bay of Plenty Saturday October 11

Rd 6: International Rally of Whangarei Friday November 7- Sunday November 9

The 2025 Central Machine Hire Otago Rally is already proving popular, with over 65 intentions to enter received so far. There have already been nine received from Australia, and seven from other countries including the UK and Japan.

Rally organisers are expecting to have a full field of over 100 entries for the April 5 and 6 event, with the rally’s “star driver” yet to be announced.

Welsh driver, Meirion Evans, has already confirmed his entry, as has Japan’s Fuyuhiko Takahasi in the Pacific Cup section of the rally.

Australians to show early interest include Richie Dalton in a Ford Escort RS1800, and Darryn Snooks in a Datsun Stanza.

Next’s year’s Central Machine Hire Otago Rally route is just about finalised and will offer competitors 280 kilometres over 15 special stages, finishing with the famed Kuri Bush stage.

The intention to enter is non-binding, so competitors are encouraged to get their name on the list at: https://otagorally.com/competitors/intention-to-enter/

Supplementary Regulations will be available soon for what promises to again be a bumper edition of the event.

The Central Machine Hire Otago Rally is grateful to the Dunedin City Council for Premier Event funding.

Defending champions James Ford and his co driver Neil Shanks held on to win the 2024 Silver Fern Rally, making it back to back wins.  Their winning margin after 7 days, and almost 1000 kilometres of special stages was 4 minutes 21 seconds.

Robbie and Amy Stokes finished in second place, 4 minutes 11 seconds ahead of Robert Gough and Jeremy Rogers in third. The top three positions were held by Ford Escorts.

James on his win: “It’s been a long week, we’ve had a few incidents but apart from that we’ve managed it. We have managed an engine problem since day 2. The last stage was very rough and a bit of a baptism of fire for the last stage of the rally.

“We did the same stage 2 years ago in the other direction so we knew what it was like. We had a big lead so went pretty steady”.

The 2WD Challenge was won by Chris Ramsay and Amy Hudson in Ramsay's self-built Toyota Corolla. Behind them by 9 minutes 33 seconds were Dave Strong and Rob Scott in Dave's one-off V6 Honda Jazz RS. Richard Galley and Claire Buccini in the BMW E30 just held onto third place another 5 minutes 42 seconds back.

Ben Huband and Corinne Cutler (Subaru Magnum H6) won the 4WD class from Tom Milliken and Chris Cunningham, having had a mostly trouble free rally.

The Irish pairing of Keith Hamilton and Glenn Alcorn (Subaru GC8) won the 3-Day Silver Frond by just 23.9 seconds from the Ford Escort of Stephen Gill and Grant Molloy.

The Porsche and the Lancia Stratos were repaired overnight after their heavy crashes on the penultimate day south of Dunedin.

It was all hands on deck to repair the cars for the final day.

Tuthill Porsche Team Manager: "The first job was to assess it and see what needed pulling out, then make it straight. Because it caught fire we had to redo the wiring loom too.  Luckly we had the car back (at Service) by mid-day so worked until about 10pm”.

The final day had the longest stage of the entire rally at a staggering 54 kilometres. This was one of three stages which took the survivors through some of the most picturesque landscape in the country.

Following these three stages and after lunchtime service the cars toured to Wanaka for the Ceremonial Finish at Paddons Paddock.

Of the 53 7-Day entries, 26 completed all 47 stages. James Ford showed his consistency winning 23 in the Historic section with Marcus van Klink - the only other leader for 5 stages - next on 8, while Dave Strong won 24 to Rambo's 21 in the Challenge.

Seven-time New Zealand Rally Championship winner Hayden Paddon has stormed to a dominant win in the International Rally of Whangarei for a staggering 9th time in his career.

Paddon, in his Hyundai i20N Rally2, beat Ben Hunt (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) by four minutes and 42 seconds to take out the winner-takes-all FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship for the second time in his career.

He won every stage of the event to underline his dominance.

It wasn’t all bad news for Hunt however, his second place enough to secure a third New Zealand national championship after Paddon missed the opening round at Otago.

Dylan Thomson finished a brilliant third in the older generation Subaru Impreza after holding off a charging Emma Gilmour (Citroen C3 Rally2) on Sunday.

Gilmour followed Paddon and Hunt home in the Asia Pacific Championship.

Bryn Jones put his best ever drive together to secure a comfortable victory in the 2WD class in his Ford Fiesta Rally4, while father Anthony Jones won the Historic class.

WRC rally winner Hayden Paddon leads the International Rally of Whangarei by two minutes and 38 seconds over two-time New Zealand rally champion Ben Hunt.

Paddon won all of the day’s 10 stages to take a commanding lead and have control of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship winner-takes-all finale in the process.

Hunt is on track to win a third national title if he can maintain second place throughout Sunday’s seven stages. Emma Gilmour (Citroen C3 Rally2) pipped Dylan Thomson for third place – Thomson running an older generation Subaru Impreza.

A number of leading contenders ran into trouble in a drama-filled day.

Talented teenager Zeal Jones slid off the road in the second stage of the day in his Skoda Fabia R5, while Robbie Stokes crashed his Ford Fiesta AP4 on stage three.

Jack Hawkeswood (Toyota GR Yaris AP4) had to replace an axle and was a temporary withdrawal, while Mike Young (Toyota Yaris AP4) suffered electrical failure late in the day while running third.

All three re-joined for the two passes through Pohe Island Super Special late in the day.

Bryn Jones (Ford Fiesta Rally4) is the leading 2WD competitor, in front of father Anthony Jones (Ford Escort Mk2), who is the first of the Historic entrants.

The rally continues on Sunday with seven more stages south of Whangarei.

A world class performance by rising Kiwi rally star Zeal Jones has seen him secure a place in the final for the Toyota World Rally Team’s “WRC Challenge Program”.

Jones secured a top spot after an exhausting series of assessments by rally icons Mikko Hirvonen and Jouni Ampuja. Six made it through the semi-finals held in Japan and a seventh driver – who qualified by winning the Morizo Challenge Cup – will now prepare for the final shoot-out in Finland in December.

All will be tested physically and have their skills on ice and snow evaluated before one is signed up for the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program as a Generation 4 driver.

“It was genuine relief when I found out I had secured a spot,” explained the impressive youngster. “I wasn’t overly pleased with my runs, so I wasn’t sure at all until they announced the result an hour after we finished, especially as the gymkhana-style evaluation was a familiar format to the other drivers.

“However, after making the semi-finals, we were told the results wouldn’t just be based on times like the quarter-finals so I left it all out there and just tried my best to demonstrate to the judges that I can be an all-round driver capable of more than this style of racing, which the instructors acknowledged.

“ The gymkhana-style course was challenging for me as I’ve never done that style of racing. Being in New Zealand, we are blessed with the best roads in the world, even the instructors told me that.”

“With the incredible opportunities I’ve had so far in my career, I’ve been able to advance quickly through the New Zealand rallying ranks, kind of skipping the entry-level learning, which is autocross and gymkhanas. In Japan, this style of racing is more prevalent, especially on the tarmac, so some of the boys had done the same track but in a different configuration in previous trials when TOYOTA GAZOO Racing were on their search for Generation 3 drivers last year.”

Before heading to Japan, Zeal had undergone an intensive day of preparation behind the wheel of Toyota’s GR models under the expert tuition of Kaleb Ngatoa, and he was in no doubt about the value.

“That preparation with TGRNZ proved vital and probably pivotal for me as without the training on track in the GR range with Kaleb, I wouldn’t have been able to apply my skills nearly as well,” he added.

“We were in the GR Yaris, which was as expected. However, they trialled us in an automatic and no use of paddle shift.

This made the circumstances different to what I tested in New Zealand with the manual car.

“It made it difficult to use the power so I had to adapt. It’s now eyes forward to the final and I have to thank all of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing NZ team for their support. When it comes to supporting young drivers like myself wanting to succeed, they go the extra mile.”

Only open to Japanese drivers, Zeal’s mother is Japanese making him eligible to compete. He is the youngest driver ever to become the NZRC Rally Challenge Champion, and is the 2024 New Zealand Rally Junior Champion.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand Motorsport Manager Nicolas Caillol was delighted with Zeal’s progress on the world stage, commenting: “We are very proud of his achievement in making up to the final trip to Finland. “We had a hunch he might be pretty good but he is already exceeding everyone’s expectations. He fits perfectly with our philosophy of Finding New Zealand’s Next World Champion and we’re eager to develop and nurture talent like his to provide TOYOTA GAZOO Racing New Zealand globally the best talent from New Zealand.”

The world’s greatest ever rally driver, Frenchman Sébastien Loeb, and New Zealand’s most successful rally driver Hayden Paddon are the latest stars confirmed for next year’s Race Of Champions (ROC) event in the Accor Stadium in Sydney Olympic Park from March 7-8.

Loeb won no less than nine consecutive World Rally Championships and will be chasing his fifth Champion of Champions ROC title at Accor Stadium in Sydney. Not only did Loeb win nine WRC crowns, he also holds the record for the most WRC event wins (80), most podium finishes (120) and stage victories (939).

Last year, Hayden Paddon became the first non-European to be crowned European Rally Champion and he backed up that effort when he recently clinched back-to-back titles for Hyundai securing the 2024 ERC Title in the final event in Poland.

“To be part of the Race Of Champions and especially represent the first Team NZ in ROC is a dream come true for me,” said Paddon.

“I’ve been watching the Race Of Champions every year since my hero Colin McRae won ROC in Gran Canaria, always hoping that one day I would be invited to compete.

“It’s a true honour to be able to represent New Zealand and compete against some of the best of the best. New Zealand has always proudly punched above its weight in world motorsport and this will be a chance for myself and my teammate, whoever that ends up being, to really fly the Kiwi flag on the world stage.

“I hope many New Zealand fans will join me in Sydney now that this unique event is coming to this part of the world for the first time. March cannot come soon enough.”

Paddon is regarded as one of the most proactive and fan-friendly competitors in local and world rallying and will be chasing his eighth national title in the International Rally of Whangarei from November 8-10.

ROC Sydney will be the first time that New Zealand has a team competing in the ROC Nations Cup and Paddon’s teammate will be announced in the lead up to the event.

The announcement of Loeb and Paddon comes after the recent confirmation of a German “super team” of Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher for next year’s showcase Sydney event, which will also include seven-time Australian Supercars champion Jamie Whincup and many other superstars from around the world.

The Race Of Champions will run over two nights with a purpose built 1 kilometer tarmac track taking centre stage at Accor Stadium, Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.

Loeb currently drives in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) for Dacia, finishing second in the recent Rallye du Maroc in his first event for the team.

He has also been a regular starter in the grueling Dakar Rally since 2016 and finished second in the event in 2017, 2022 and 2023 before finishing third this year.

Further proving his versatility, Loeb joined the World Touring Car Championship with Citroen Total in 2014 and during two seasons finished with six wins and 20 podiums, finishing third in the title chase both years.

Loeb’s impressive record at the Race Of Champions includes being crowned the individual Champion of Champions no less than four times. His first triumph came at Gran Canaria in 2003, defeating Marcus Grönholm in the Grand Final. He repeated the feat in Paris at the expense of Tom Kristensen (2005) and at London’s Wembley Stadium in 2008 against David Coulthard. Then he pulled off another overall victory in 2022 at ROC Sweden after beating Sebastian Vettel in the final.