Paddon in busy mode on road to Kiwi WRC

New Zealand’s best rally driver Hayden Paddon has been busy despite not contesting the World Rally Championship full-time.

He’s recently returned from a fourrace programme in Europe and is back in action at the Ashley Forest Rallysprint this weekend.

Paddon won the event in 2019 in his Hyundai i20 AP4. This time, he’s competing in his Paddon Rallysportbuilt and developed Hyundai Kona EV rally car, which he drove to victory in the Waimate 50 Motorsport Festival last October.

Paddon’s next big goal is the Kiwi round of the WRC (September 29October 2) in the WRC2 category.

He and his team are preparing the Hyundai i20 N Rally 2 car he picked up in Europe for the WRC round in and around Auckland.

“The car and spare parts are all back [in New Zealand] and ready to go — well, ready to test anyway,” Paddon told the Weekend Herald.

“We’ve still got a bit of testing and work to do on the car and we’ll be bringing it up to Tauranga for some more tests in the run-up to the WRC.

“It’s pretty busy with getting the EV ready for Ashley Forest and getting the Rally 2 car sorted for the WRC round.

“It’s almost stupidly busy but I thrive on that sort of thing. The rest of the team have been great, taking everything in their stride. Everyone knows what we’re doing and we can all take a holiday when it’s over.”

New Zealand boasts some of the world’s best gravel roads for rallying, which allow drivers to dance from camber to camber and don’t have the rocks, snow, ice and ruts that mar other international rallies.

“We’re here to win [the WRC2 category] but the competition is going to be tough. Shane [van Gisbergen], Harry Bates and Ben [Hunt] will be strong. There will be a part of me that will want to compete against the slower WRC1 cars but we still have to take a measured approach.

“The roads are iconic and the best in the world. I enjoy the Whaanga Coast, but I enjoy the Te Akau stages more, as they are probably more of a driver’s road.”