Paddon claims first-ever TCR New Zealand pole position

Hayden Paddon has seemingly made a smooth transition from the gravel he won on at Rally Otago last weekend to the tarmac of Highlands Motorsport Park. The rally star has claimed the first-ever TCR New Zealand pole position after setting the fastest lap time during Friday afternoon's qualifying session.
Paddon set a 1:12.422 time around Highlands' shorter 'A-C' configuration, just 0.286 seconds faster than Jaden Ransley. Gene Rollinson, who shared the top spots in practice with Ransley was not far behind, just 0.031 second off short of a front-row start. Paddon, Ransley and Rollinson made a top-three Qualifying for the Hyundai i30 N cars.
Starting from fourth will be Jordan Michels' Honda Civic Type R, a mere 0.061 seconds ahead of Greg Murphy in the fastest of the Audi RS 3 LMS cars who was followed by his teammates Chris van der Drift and Lochlainn Fitzgerald-Symes. Paul Radisich rounded out the TCR field, just one second behind Paddon's pole time.

"It was a good session, still got a lot more in it yet but a good way to start the weekend," said Paddon. "It's all very close, there's only a second between all the TCR cars, which is the whole spirit of TCR. It's anyone's game. We had a couple of little issues with the car through practice so we haven't really been able to test any set-ups so it was just a matter of bolting on some green tyres for qualifying and going to doing some laps. What I've got to get my head around tomorrow is actually how to race other people, if we can try have a clean start then I'm sure we'll go alright."

The three races will start Saturday at 9:00, 11:40 and 15:10 local times.

Qualifying
1:12.422 Hayden Paddon (Paddon Rallysport Group, Hyundai i30 N)
1:12.798 Jaden Ransley (Jaden Ransley Racing, Hyundai i30 N)
1:12.739 Gene Rollinson (Racer Products Team, Hyundai i30 N)
1:13.031 Jordan Michels (Team Williams Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7)
1:13.092 Greg Murphy (Track Tek Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)

Picture: Motorsport New Zealand/Geoff Ridder