Motorsport: Battle for rally podium heating up

Our loss is Australia's gain as a round of the World Rally Championship is held this weekend in New South Wales as part of an alternate deal between the two countries.

With only three rounds to go, the battle for world honours is starting to hot up.

Five-time world champion Sebastien Loeb had a dream start to the season winning five rallies in a row but has had a dismal run lately.

But Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen has been on a roll, winning the last three races and now leads Loeb at the top of the leader board by three on 68 points, with Dani Sordo back in third on 44 points.

Not to be left out, there are five New Zealanders racing in Repco Rally Australia. The Asia Pacific Pirelli Star Driver final is being run during the first nine stages of the 31-stage rally. Hayden Paddon and Kieran Hall qualified after topping the points' table during the New Zealand qualifying event, the NAC Insurance International Rally of Whangarei, in June. Paddon, the New Zealand rally champion, has made the trip but Hall had to bow out.

"We're all looking forward to getting the rally under way," said Paddon. "The roads are very fast, just the way we like them. The car is feeling good so there'll be no holding back."

Paddon expects stiff competition from three local drivers, Eli Evans, Glen Raymond and Nathan Quinn and China's Chaodong Liu.

"The opposition is a bit of an unknown, but to be perfectly honest all I am worried about is our own performance," he said.

Inaugural Pirelli Star Driver winner, Kiwi Mark Tapper, is partway through his Pirelli-backed season that allows him to compete in six of the 12 WRC rounds. Despite recovering from a broken and plated arm, he's declared himself fit for this weekend.

"At the Possum Bourne Rally we used it as a shakedown for some new parts as well as my arm," said Tapper. "For Australia I needed to know I could drive well and it certainly wasn't a problem."

Former New Zealand rally champion and Paddon's closest domestic rival, Richard Mason, will also be competing after being nominated by Nasser Al-Attiyah to take his PWRC entry in the event.

Mason shipped his Subaru across the ditch well in advance of the rally and he and his co-driving wife, Sara, have had 10 days to acclimatise to the heat and dust on what will be one of the longest rallies in recent times.

"We've had a great time, and with a good day testing the car at the official PWRC test session [Monday], we can 'tick that box'," said Mason.

"The roads used are very similar to what we have back home and are predominantly fast and smooth - definitely not car breakers."

The two remaining Kiwi drivers mixing it with the best are Trevor Taylor and his son Stewart (racing in different cars).