World Rally Championship driver Hayden Paddon will this season contest five of the six NZ Rally Championship rounds as well as competing in the Ashley Forest Rallysprint in September.
With a reduced WRC campaign, the 30-year-old is keen to stay competitive. Campaigning his Hyundai i20 AP4+ car in the domestic competition, Paddon will miss Rally Canterbury (3 June) which clashes with preparation for Rally Italy, a week later.
The three-time NZ titleholder last won back in 2013 while also campaigning in the WRC2 competition. In that season he competed in just four of the six rounds but gained enough points to beat home Richard Mason.
This was a championship that Paddon should not have won, but did so because his competitors didn’t finish events.
Paddon won the opening two rounds – Rally Otago and Rally Whangarei, then missed both the Daybreaker and Canterbury rallies.
Richard Mason twice finished second to Paddon then failed to gain points in either of the two events that Paddon missed.
Ben Hunt won the Daybreaker while Chris West won at Canterbury.
Mason then won the fifth round (the Possum Bourne Rally where Paddon finished fourth) and then finished second to Paddon at the final round at Wairarapa.
Thirteen points was the overall gap between Paddon and Mason. Again, this is a championship where finishing is paramount and Paddon’s competitors didn’t, leaving the door open for him to take the title.
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