Motorsport: Paddon chasing Whangarei treble

Kiwi Pirelli Star Driver Hayden Paddon is keen to get into action at this weekend's International Rally of Whangarei, which is also a round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.

Paddon and co-driver John Kennard want to add a third victory in the two-day event and keep their seat time up before heading back to Europe to contest the Production World Rally Championship.

Paddon and Kennard's last rally was WRC Portugal at the end of May. Again the pair finished the best of the Pirelli Star Drivers, but Paddon says that event highlighted improvements needed to be made to their pace noting system.

"We'll be taking the opportunity in Whangarei to practice the changes to our pace notes," said Paddon. The great thing about being on an event we know well, we have the chance to make that kind of fine-tuning to our systems.

"Also, being a two-day event on roads we know, we don't have as much concern about conserving the car to make it to the end as we do on tough, rocky WRC events like Turkey where just getting to the finish is a huge challenge on its own."

As well as an APRC race, the Rally of Whangarei is part of the New Zealand Rally Championship. Paddon is registered to earn points in both series, after being awarded one of the APRC wildcard entries.

"Last year we won the Pacific Cup, which is part of the Asia Pacific series, but we didn't get to earn APRC points. While earning APRC points isn't our top priority, if we can do well in both the event and the APRC field, that would be awesome. The APRC is a prestigious FIA series and to win a round is a very significant achievement," said Paddon.

He won't be having it all his own way though, as former WRC stars Alister McRae and Chris Atkinson will keep Paddon honest as will top-seeded Japanese driver Katsuhiko Taguchi.

The experienced McRae is making his debut in the Whangarei event, although he says he's driven some of the stages during the six times he competed in Rally New Zealand. McRae and his teammate Atkinson form the Proton R3 Rally team and are racing the Proton Satria Neo that are built to the new FIA Super 2000 regulations.

"The New Zealand stages are some of the best in the world and I hope the flowing nature will be good for the car," said McRae who now lives in Perth, Australia and is seeded fourth behind Taguchi, Atkinson and Paddon.

All in all 67 drivers have signed up for the event that counts as a round of three major rally series: the FIA APRC, the Vantage Aluminium New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) and the Stilo Top Half Rally Series.

"The top three drivers, Taguchi, Atkinson and Paddon, are complemented by numerous other gifted competitors all out to take victory in this highly-regarded two-day international event," says Willard Martin, chairman of the International Rally of Whangarei organising committee.

The top 10 on the seeded entry list is rounded out by Indian Gaurav Gill, Australian Brendan Reeves, current NZRC series leader Dean Sumner, Indonesian APRC competitor Rifat Sungkar, Sloan Cox - the youngest NZRC competitor at 18 - and Ben Jagger from Whangarei in a Subaru.

This year's rally has attracted entries from drivers from seven countries outside New Zealand. Australia, India, Indonesia, Finland, France, Japan and the United Kingdom. The international drivers will be looking over their respective shoulders, as a bunch of fast Kiwis will be snapping at their heels.

Former New Zealand champions Richard Mason and Chris West and the hard charging Emma Gilmour will be more than happy to rattle a few cages in the APRC ranks as well as fighting it out in the NZRC.

Also within the NZRC is the two-wheel-drive class, which has attracted six entries. Chief among them is the Ford Fiesta contingent of Stephen Barker, Ben Hunt and Phil Campbell as well as Japanese drivers Masaaki Hatano and Motoharu Kaseya in a Honda Integra and a Suzuki Ignis.

The NZRC also has classes for open four-wheel-drive, Kiwi 2, and historic cars that are joined by competitors from the Stilo Top Half Rally Series which has five classes for "clubman" competitors.

The ceremonial start is on Friday with the rally proper getting under way on Saturday, and the finish ceremony back at the Quayside Town Basin at 3.30pm on Sunday.

An official rally map that includes detailed descriptions on how to get to all the designated spectator points is available free from the rally headquarters on the corner of Dent St and Quayside Way, Quayside Town Basin, Whangarei.

Tickets can be purchased on the day from spectator points, from the rally headquarters from today, or from the official rally bar, Salut Bar and Brasserie on Bank St, which is offering a special prize draw to win a ride in one of New Zealand's top rally cars around the Pohe Island super special stage during Friday's official shakedown session.