Motor racing: Poland a new challenge for Kiwis

Hayden Paddon says the soft and sandy roads for the Poland rally will cut up and become rougher as the event progresses.

New Zealand WRC driver Hayden Paddon is back behind the wheel of his Hyundai i20 WRC car for the second time this month at the Lotos Rally Poland.

He and co-driver John Kennard will not be at much of a disadvantage this weekend as the rally world series hasn't been in Poland since 2009 and before that, in 1973.

Unlike his outing in Sardegna, where most of the drivers had competed before, Paddon and Kennard will, like nearly all the others, have to write their notes from scratch for the Polish event.

"Unlike most other events, it is relatively new for most of our competitors," he said after his first run over the rally roads.

"This makes it a real leveller, particularly for us as John and I are the new boys on the block. I'm really looking forward to Poland.

"The stages are really fast, a bit like Finland with the main difference being the road surface, which is quite soft and sandy.

"We saw in testing that on the repeat run, the stages will get very rough and cut up, so that's something we will have to think about."

Despite having a few mechanical issues in the new car, and it being his first time at the Italian event at the beginning of the month, Paddon and Kennard finished a very credible 12th gaining valuable manufacturer points for Hyundai.

"The pace note problems in Sardegna were very specific to that event," he said.

"It was very technical; there are a lot of changes in rhythm and grip levels and you need a lot of information. Some of this also comes down to a lack of experience of such a unique event."

Paddon tested the i20 in Poland with the team before heading to Sardegna, which will help during the rally, as the team will have some base data for car set-up.

"The set-up we worked on and went to Sardegna with didn't work there. We're now trying something else and hope it'll work. It's a different approach and we're going in hoping it'll work, which I think it will," said Paddon.

He and Kennard are happy with how the pace notes are progressing for the rally and said some sections of the course reminded them a little of New Zealand rally roads.

They would also have been able to fine-tune the pace notes during shakedown, and should be able to put on a stronger showing this weekend.

"Of course we would like to get some driver points this time out. I guess the stage we're at with our career is that it's not about setting the fastest stage times every time.

"We really want to target two or three particular stages were we want to set some really good times.

"Beyond that it's about being sensible and looking after the car and trying to get to the finish and get some points.

"Most of the time we'll be forgetting about the times and trying to learn," he said.

"These first few events are all about learning - the team, the car, and the events - but we're also bench-marking ourselves against our team-mate Thierry Neuville.

"In Sardegna, on average, we were 0.75 seconds per kilometre slower than Thierry.

"For Poland, our goal is to reduce this to 0.5 s/km.

"Of course if we can also finish the event, as we did in Sardegna, that would be great to help aid our and the team's learning process."

Poland is the mid-way point of the season.

The rally covers 1500km in total and 350km of competitive stages.

Today plays out over 10 stages with a final four stages wrapping up the action tomorrow.