Motorsport: Paddon targets speedy end to campaign

Hayden Paddon. Photo / Getty Images

With his title hopes dashed, New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon has just one aim ahead of the season-ending Wales Rally GB starting in Wales on Friday (NZT) - to win the race.

Paddon lines up for the final World Rally Championship (WRC) round of the season third in the feeder series, the FIA Production World Rally Championship (PWRC), having been one of five Pirelli Star drivers who won the opportunity to contest six WRC events this year.

The 23-year-old two-time New Zealand rally champion secured funding to add two other WRC events to his calendar and thus be eligible to earn points in 2010 - one of just a handful of New Zealanders to ever contest the WRC feeder series.

Paddon goes into the season finale - four days in length on the traditionally wet, slippery roads around Cardiff in Wales - third in the standings but without a chance of lifting the title after a disappointing run thwarted by mechanical issues at the last round at Rally France.

The Geraldine driver has refocused his goals for the Welsh event.

"Yes, it was disappointing in France, but the championship title isn't a priority now," Paddon said.

"We (Paddon and co-driver John Kennard, of Blenheim) have no chance of winning and, realistically, no one remembers who gets second or third ... (but) we have achieved our goal from the start of this season and that's for a top three PWRC placing.

"The goal for Wales is to try and win the PWRC category."

Despite contesting most of his 2010 events for the first time, Paddon had delivered a class win and three top-three places before the challenges of Rally France last month, when he finished seventh.

Paddon went start to the United Kingson after France and has been chasing up opportunities and meetings that could help him put together a competitive rally season next year.

Standings in the 2010 FIA Production World Rally Championship for Drivers (after Rally France):-

1 - Armindo Araujo (Portugal, Mitsubishi) 108 points
2 - Patrik Flodin (Sweden, Subaru) 90
3 - Hayden Paddon (New Zealand, Mitsubishi) 82
4 - Ott Tanak (Estonia, Mitsubishi) 53
5 - Toshi Arai (Japan, Subaru) 53

- NZPA