Motorsport: Hayden Paddon back on the podium in European rally return

Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard on the podium. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand's most successful rally driver Hayden Paddon is finally racing again in Europe, getting back on the tarmac last weekend at the Tour European Rally (TER) series in Italy.

Finishing fourth overall at the Rally di Alba, Paddon and co-driver John Kennard were delighted to have won the TER category after what has been a long time between races abroad - and more than five years since the pair have raced an all-tarmac event.

Further boosting their confidence, Paddon secured a number of top-three stage times and finished ahead of Pierre-Louis Loubet, a French national champion and WRC2 champion, and 11-time Italian rally champion Paolo Andreucci.

For their first foray into European championships, Paddon and Kennard drove a Hyundai i20 R5 car run by Hyundai Motorsport Italy. At this weekend's event, the Rally Liepaja in Latvia, they will be campaigning as Paddon's own Hyundai New Zealand Rally team in a new Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car.

"It's great to get our European tour off to a good start with fourth place, out of 250 cars, at Rally di Alba and first place in the TER category," said Paddon.

"With five years since our last tarmac rally, our expectations were quite low. The car and the road surface felt very foreign on our test day which was the same day I hopped off the plane from New Zealand.

"With the level of competition in Italy we thought a top-10 result would be good. However, as the rally progressed, we got more and more into a groove, setting several top-three times. At the end, we were only 20 seconds from the lead. Overall, it was a very enjoyable weekend and big thanks to the HMI team who ran us."

It's been a big effort to get the car ready for this weekend and the first opportunity Paddon had to drive the car was at yesterday's shakedown. This year the Kiwi duo are contesting four European events, as well as the WRC round back in New Zealand, to develop the car and get back up to international speed before taking on a full season in 2023.

"We're treating this weekend's event in Latvia as a test rally, trying many different setups and gathering as much data as we can over the 12 special stages," said Paddon.

"We'll still give it our best shot, but there's a lot to learn about the car, which we'd normally do on a pre-event test. It can't be helped that there's no time for a pre-event test in this case, and the car's signwriting in its iconic black and white Kiwi livery will also have to wait until after this weekend's rally.

"We are very much looking forward to driving the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car and finding out more about this awesome rally car."

The Kiwi pair last raced in the WRC in 2019 when they competed in a WRC2 car for M-Sport at Rally Wales. Paddon was then going to race in selected WRC main game events in a Hyundai i20, but then Covid arrived.

This weekend will have seen Paddon do three events in three weeks, in three different cars and three different countries.