Motorsport: Ground-breaking move for Hayden Paddon

Hayden Paddon in action at last weekend's International Rally of Whangarei. Photo / Geoff Ridder

New Zealand's leading rally driver Hayden Paddon is planning on a ground-breaking move that will bring a huge amount of professionalism to the sport domestically.

The Hyundai world rally star is competing in five of the six rounds in the New Zealand Rally Championship this year in a Hyundai i20 AP4+ car.

But the 31-year-old is planning on expanding his Paddon Rallysport Team back home next season and adding a second new generation car to the operation.

"We definitely want to do something - we need to do a facelift because this car is a bit out-dated and when you are representing a manufacturer we need something a bit newer," Paddon told The Herald.

"We want to do something. We are in the planning stages.

"We are looking at expanding Paddon Rallysport. That is the first step.

"The first thing for us is having a company structure in place and we need to be employing three or four people. That is a big step to do that – to go from part-time staff and part-time team to a fulltime one."

Paddon hopes to begin putting those blocks in place after heading back to Europe for next weekend's WRC Portugal. After winning the International Rally of Whangarei last week the one-time WRC winner jumped on a plane to prepare for his second and third WRC events of the season with Rally Sardinia following in early June.

He will then head home to begin preparation on his 2019 plans including the potential build of a new Hyundai.

"If you need to turn the car around quickly you can do that with that many people," Paddon added.