Motorsport: Paddon counts on home advantage

Hayden Paddon. Photo / Michael Cunningham

National champion Hayden Paddon is looking to make full use of home advantage as he targets finishing this year's Production World Rally Championship on the podium.

Rally New Zealand, which runs from tomorrow to Sunday on roads from Northland to Waikato, will the first of Paddon's six PWRC events and he believes it provides him with his best chance for a win in the Group N category.

He and co-driver John Kennard knew the conditions and there wouldn't be outside issues like a different culture or a foreign language to deal with.

"We're familiar with the territory and the character of the roads," he said.

"There are three or four drivers who are going to be fast, but I think we've got a really good chance. It's a matter of writing some really good pace notes and making sure our preparation remains good."

The PWRC, which comprises nine events of which competitors nominate six as their scoring ones, is a companion to the World Rally Championship, which six-time champion Sebastien Loeb is leading after four of its 13 rounds.

As holder of the Pirelli Star Driver Scholarship, which he was awarded ahead of five other contenders from the Asia Pacific region, Paddon has full funding for the six rounds he has chosen, the others being Portugal, Finland, Germany, France and Britain.

"A target for the year is a top-three championship position," the South Canterbury driver said.

"Naturally we would like to win it, but at the same time you have to be realistic. Experience counts for a lot at this level, especially where we're going, where it's not all about driving flat out all the time. It's also about controlling your speed, depending on the conditions."

When Rally NZ was last held, in 2008, Geraldine-based Paddon was the first New Zealander home, piloting his Team Green Mitsubishi Evo to 13th overall.

He went to claim of the first of his two national titles that year.

Paddon, 23, already has experience of one WRC rally under this belt this year, having contested the round in Turkey round last month with mixed fortunes.

He crashed on the very first special stage and was forced to retire for the rest of day one, but he rejoined the field for days two and three and set some quick times.

Paddon put the crash down to a mistake in the pace notes and a failure to note down a chicane that was placed on the road after reconnaissance.

"We came over a crest flat out in fifth gear to find a man-made dirt wall in front of us and there's not much you can do at 160km/h," he said.

"The damage was minimal, but the thing that stopped us from continuing was the fact that we were beached and we couldn't dig ourselves out."

While he was going into Rally NZ with some confidence based on the team's off-season preparations and the car's speed in testing, he wasn't getting carried away.

"At the end of the day, the proof of the pudding is when you get to the first stage, because testing and competing are two completely different things."

- NZPA