Paddon’s focus on testing new car
Hayden Paddon’s return to the world rally championship stage has him in north-eastern Europe for Rally Estonia this weekend.
The 35-year-old, from Geraldine and now based in Cromwell, will race a new Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car in the three-day event, round seven of the World Rally Championship-2 for productionbased cars homologated under Group Rally 2 rules.
Paddon had a hit out in the car with co-driver John Kennard, of Blenheim, in Rally Latvia, a round of the FIA European Rally Championship on July 1-3, just two weeks after winning his hometown South Canterbury Rally.
He said he has ‘‘no result expectations or goals, simply to finish the rally and gain more experience of the car and for the team’’.
Paddon, Kennard and the team were pleased with the results in Latvia, essentially a shakedown stage, having taken delivery of the car just two days before the event began.
Paddon and Kennard, who became the only Kiwis to have tasted WRC success at the top level in winning Rally Argentina in 2016, showed plenty of speed throughout the two-day Latvian event, setting several top three stage times in a field of more than 200 entries, despite the car not being set up the way they would have preferred.
A spin dropped them down the overall standings to sixth overall but Paddon regards the test rally as a success due to the amount of information about the car the team was able to gather to be ready for future events.
‘‘Latvia was a successful event for us.
‘‘Despite the result not looking great on paper, we achieved everything we set out to do which was to learn the new car and have a base to work forward from.
‘‘We achieved that and have learnt we also have a lot of work to get the car set up for my driving style. But it has now given us a direction to work in and will help us be better prepared for Estonia and beyond,’’ Paddon said.
‘‘With Rally Estonia, the goal is essentially the same as Latvia, looking at it as a test rally where we focus on ourselves to ensure we take positive steps forward with the feeling with the car and competitiveness.
‘‘The roads are like Latvia in the way that they are very fast, narrow in places and sandy. High levels of commitment are needed to be competitive,’’ Paddon said.
‘‘The team has been working really hard with just seven days to turn the car around from Latvia, which includes all our usual pre-rally prep and also changing the setup of many components.
‘‘It’s an exciting time for our small and dedicated team as we use this event in Estonia and Rally Finland in August as part of our preparation for a full WRC2 campaign next year.’’
Paddon has competed in Estonia once before in 2018, finishing second when the rally was a WRC candidate event, with former co-driver Seb Marshall.
There are 43 entries in the Estonia event with 20 of the cars in WRC2. The event has 24 special stages covering 314.26km.
After Estonia, Paddon and Kennard are set to contest the next WRC2 round, Rally Finland (August 4-7), before returning home for Rally New Zealand on September 29-October 2