Motorsport: Paddon sets up for NZ charge

Hayden Paddon tearing up the Wairarapa in his championship-winning Evo. Photo / Lance Hastie

Champion New Zealand motor rally driver Hayden Paddon is relishing the experience gained after finishing 26th in last weekend's Turkish Rally.

He thought the result would put him in good stead for next month's New Zealand Rally, where Paddon, from Geraldine, and co-driver John Kennard, from Blenheim, will begin their production world rally championship (PWRC) charge.

Run in conjunction with the world championship, the PWRC contains nine rounds, with competitors nominating six of those as their scoring rounds.

Paddon has picked New Zealand and Japan, Finland, France, Germany and Britain.

He will also compete in Portugal but that is a non-PWRC round, as was Turkey.

"Overall it's been great to get more time in the car and my confidence with it has been growing every stage in Turkey," Paddon said.

"Once I get a little more confident in driving it consistently, I will be able to focus more on fine tuning the set-up of the car with the team."

Paddon, who turns 23 today, draws confidence from the fact he set the fastest production car times on three stages and broke into the top 10 with his time on stage 13 against the best WRC cars and drivers on the second day.

"Saturday's last stage, the longest of the rally at 27km, was the first time that I started to feel at one with the car, especially the second half where I felt I could drive with good confidence without taking risks," he said.

"It's all a matter of time in the seat and I certainly felt much better after a good day, setting some good stage times."

For the New Zealand rally which begins on May 6, Paddon will be competing in his own Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9, in which he won last year's national championship.

"I can't wait for Rally New Zealand where we'll start our PWRC campaign.

- NZPA