Rotorua's Sloan Cox hopes to take his career as a rally driver to a whole new level if he wins the inaugural Hyundai New Zealand Young Driver Shootout this weekend.
Cox, 25, is one of five young rally drivers who have been selected to contest the shootout taking place on 9 and 10 December 2016.
The Hyundai New Zealand Young Driver Shootout is a mentoring programme developed by Kiwi world rally star Hayden Paddon in partnership with Hyundai New Zealand and the Hyundai-backed Pinnacle Programme for talented teens.
The shootout winner will get a major step-up with their motorsport career aspirations and benefit from the opportunity to drive the Hyundai NZ AP4 i20 rally car run by Paddon Rallysport in two rounds of the 2017 New Zealand Rally Championship, testing and training with Paddon, plus the potential for an expanded programme in 2018.
Cox, who started his competitive rallying at age 15, has already tasted much success after he won the junior driver New Zealand Rally Championship title in 2010 aged 19 and, after a three-year break from national competition, finished runner-up in this year's New Zealand Rally Championship and won the junior national title for the second time.
But the talented driver knows this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from New Zealand's best.
"I knew I had to enter because it was such a great chance to work alongside Hayden and learn from him over the two-day shootout and ultimately be mentored by Hayden for the whole year if I was to win the shootout," he said.
The project and site manager for Rotorua engineering firm Taslo Engineering added: "This is amazing opportunity that Hayden Paddon and Hyundai New Zealand have put together for young New Zealand rally drivers so I really appreciate them selecting me as one of the lucky five drivers and giving me the chance to show them what I have to offer."
Running near Auckland, the Hyundai New Zealand Young Driver Shootout includes lessons and assessments on fitness, how to identify and look after sponsors, nutrition, media presence, career planning, writing pace notes and car set-up.