Motorsport: Tarmac roads will test Paddon

Hayden Paddon says he is not fazed by the challenge of competing in an all-tarmac rally. Photo / Supplied

Young New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon gets another chance this weekend to prove he can battle it out with some of the world's best.

His challenge is the Rallye Deutschland (Rally Germany) for round nine of the World Rally Championship (WRC), and race number three in his six nominated Production World Rally Championship (PWRC) events.

After three rounds of the PWRC series, of which Paddon has contested only two, he sits comfortably in third place on the table, 10 points behind Patrik Flodin and a further eight behind series leader Armindo Araujo.

The man from Geraldine had a comprehensive win in the New Zealand round of the WRC and backed it up with a third place in his class in July at Rally Finland. The one potential sticking point this weekend will be the tarmac roads.

Paddon has yet to compete in a full-tarmac rally but is unfazed by the new challenge. "It's going to be really great and a bit different from what we're used to," he said after a day's recce.

"Although it's a full tarmac rally, it's been a bit wet lately and there could be quite a lot of mud thrown up turning it into a mud rally. If it dries out it'll be fun. I've only ever done a Targa rally before and they're quite different.

"We weren't doing too bad before we fell off the road and it was a big learning curve, especially learning how to change my driving style."

Not only will Paddon have to adapt his driving style for the different nuances of rallying on tarmac, the car will be experiencing a number of different strains. Flinging and stopping a car around gravel roads puts different loads on gear than on a grippy blacktop road.

"Brakes were particularly a problem on tarmac. Unlike a gravel rally where you're not working the brakes so hard, we're going to have to be wary of the brakes. There's not as much load on the brakes in a gravel rally and you can afford to push harder and brake later. But on tarmac where you're going a bit faster there is much more grip and the brakes get hotter and get a much harder time."

Paddon has never been able to see how he stacks up against other PWRC drivers on tarmac so has no benchmark to go by. So far in the championship he and co-driver John Kennard have targeted the gravel events for all-out wins but will be looking to shore up his third place in the title race this weekend.

"We'll be concentrating on our own game and looking to score points in the PWRC while also trying to stay the leading Pirelli Star driver. We'll be really happy to hold our third place in the series at the end of our first all-tarmac rally. Stocking up points at this part of the season is vital," said Paddon.

Paddon will start 27th, just behind Araujo and in front of fellow Pirelli Star driver Ott Tanak.

PWRC points
* Armindo Araujo....58
* Patrik Flodin....50
* Hayden Paddon....40
* Anders Gronda....l30
* Toshi Arai....26
* Gianluca Linari....25