Motorsport: Paddon gears up for trophy hunt

Hayden Paddon will be keen to notch up a national title before he heads to Argentina. Photo / APN

Several leading New Zealand rally drivers will be hammering it out over various North Island gravel roads this weekend aiming to become the first Kiwi in 30 years to add his name to the Rally New Zealand trophy.

Chief among those since Jim Donald and co-driver Kevin Lancaster in 1981, are Hayden Paddon, defending New Zealand rally champion Dean Sumner and former series title holders Richard Mason, Chris West and 2010 runner up Emma Gilmour.

The leading drivers after round one of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally championship are in with a chance as the rally is not part of the World Rally Championship this year. Whoever holds the trophy aloft on Sunday afternoon will have their name engraved alongside the likes of Sebastien Loeb, Marcus Gronholm, Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae.

On paper, Paddon has the best chance, as he's the form driver having recently competed in the Rally of Portugal where he finished first with the biggest time margin in Production World Rally Championship history. He leads the domestic championship having won round one, Rally Otago, last month ahead of Sumner, West and Mason.

"We only decided the Monday morning after Rally Otago to give it [Rally New Zealand] a crack," said Paddon. "It was sort of last minute and the car ran really well in Dunedin so we didn't have many expenses.

"A lot of the stages are what they'll probably be next year when it's a WRC round again so it gives us a good chance to get some experience and a bit of a leap on the international competition I guess."

As Paddon sits on top of the overall Goldstar driver's point's table he'll be first away and knows the rest of the Kiwi drivers use him as a benchmark. Because he won't be contesting the entire series, Paddon will be keen to get a national title under his belt before he heads to Argentina for round three of the PWRC where he lies second.

"It's definitely valuable to get the seat time before heading off. We've got the ultimate opportunity of being first finisher - so that's my focus - winning the event.

"Between Portugal and Argentina we will have done two rallies and the amount we've learned in this car [same as his PWRC car] is pretty massive. A lot of the stuff we can take to Argentina and we've already been talking to the team so when we turn up it should be all good," said Paddon.

Defending New Zealand rally champion Sumner also wants to win but not at all costs. He's in for the long haul and has his sights on another national championship.

After round one Sumner is within touching distance of Paddon, just 20 points back and is happy Paddon will be leading the field away.

"Hayden's going really well and we have to play a bit of catch-up. We don't want to go chasing a rally win as we have the championship to think about as a whole," said Sumner.

"We want the rally to come to us and we don't want to go all out just yet. Hayden's not doing the next round that will effectively knock him out of the championship. Hayden's fast and going all out for a rally win. Sure it would be nice to beat him but if we go all out and drop the leg, that's [the] championship all over."

Rally New Zealand officially got under way yesterday with a ceremonial start at the Manukau City Centre. The action really gets going today from 8am when competitors depart from the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park to do battle over eight special stages.

On Sunday, drivers face six stages around Raglan, including the iconic Whaanga Coast stage, before returning to Hampton Downs for the final super special stage on the race track in the afternoon.

Championship points

* Hayden Paddon - 128

* Dean Sumner - 120

* Chris West - 89

* Richard Mason - 78

* Glenn Inkster - 68

* Emma Gilmour - 62

find out more

rallynz.org.nz.