Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Local driver co-pilots Paddon’s defence
Hayden Paddon’s defence of two rallying titles on opposite sides of the world means there is plenty of air travel ahead for the 36-year-old former South Cantabrian and his Blenheim co-driver John Kennard.
Paddon’s 2024 schedule has him racing 13 events – eight in the European championship and five of the six rounds of the NZ championship – from April to November - which will involve four return flights to Europe.
“It’s going to be a full-on year,” Paddon said.
“Unfortunately we’ll miss the opening NZRC round at Rally Otago due that being the same weekend as Rally Hungary, but we’ll be here for the rest to try and defend our NZRC title as well.”
The busy schedule meant Paddon, a two-time winner of the South Canterbury Sportsperson of the Year, would return to NZ after round two of the ERC in the Canary Islands for his home rally in South Canterbury, after missing it in 2023.
“We’ve also got the ongoing development of the EV rally car and a few other projects up our sleeves that we’re looking forward to.
“All in all, a very busy year ahead.” Alongside the former World Rally Championship driver would be his long-time co-driver John Kennard (Blenheim) and they would again be campaigning a Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car in Europe.
The pair were the first non-Europeans to the win the FIA European Rally Championship in 2023 and Paddon, while “expecting a tougher fight”, said he and Kennard would “look to lift their performances on the events we now have experience of”.
This would be the 19th year that Paddon had rallied with Kennard.
“It’s awesome to have John back in the car again. Being our 19th year working together, it’s like a fine wine getting better
with age. We’re both excited to get back over there and put last year’s experience to good use.
“We’ll hit the ground running this year, knowing more what to expect from some of the rallies, the competition, and the teams.”
Paddon said he was ready for the challenge of more asphalt rallies as well as four new ERC events.
“We contested half of the eight rallies last year so at least we have more experience than we had 12 months ago.
“That leaves half as new-to-us rallies with more tarmac events than gravel.
“We’re up for that challenge because I think our performance on tarmac has come a long way in the last few years, so we back ourselves to be equally as competitive on tarmac as we are on gravel.”