DAVID EVANS
“Ari knows just how good Paddon can be”
This isn’t the column I wanted to write about Hayden Paddon, but the fact that he was wheels up and heading south out of Helsinki right around the time he should have been attacking Thursday night’s Harju stage was always going to put a different slant on things.
Every now and then, mine’s not the best job in the world. A week last Monday was one of those days. Seeing the first pictures of that shortened Ford Fiesta WRC on its side in a field was sickening. An hour or so before that right-hander I’d spoken to Paddon and delighted in his typically upbeat manner.
He’d completed 50 kilometres, reckoned there was another 100 left in the day and then he’d be ready. He was comfortable. He was quick. Then he was upside down. Then he was heading home. Game. Over.
And it wasn’t his fault. Not one little bit.
Ari Vatanen’s a man who knows a thing or two about bending metal in this part of the world, so I was glad he shared my perspective on Paddon’s blameless early bath.
Like me, Vatanen has known Paddon for his entire career and he’s always been impressed.
Typically, the 1981 world champion had a story to share about New Zealand and the New Zealander.
“I was doing the Otago Rally,” said Vatanen. “It was 2011, the last really proper rally I did. I was using an Escort with a proper BDA engine. I wasn’t attacking in the way I used to, but I was enjoying myself. We had one stage which was quite unlike the normal New Zealand roads – it was in the forest, twisty between the trees.
“I decided I would attack a little bit more in this stage and I pushed hard. I took 30 seconds out of the young guys [in my class]. I kept this 30-second lead through the rally and when I came to the last stage, it was a repeat of this forest stage.
“I wanted to show the boys again, so I pushed. There was a K-right through a gate and I came with no caution and without listening. Can you guess what happened? A bit of the old Ari came out and I hit the gate and broke the driveshaft. In 40 years I had learned nothing. My career started against a gate post and it ended in the same way.
“But you know who won that rally? It was Hayden. He drove so well, so well. That was when he was in his Group N Subaru, but the way he worked on his PR and his marketing from home in New Zealand, it was so impressive. Last Monday I sent him a message. I told him, yes, the clouds are all dark right now, but I believe the sun is just behind them.”
If ever there’s a driver who deserves to see the sun rise again right now it’s Paddon.