Home wins for WRC-bound Paddon

Former Production World Rally Champion Hayden Paddon was buzzing on the back of two home wins, as he prepared to head to Europe for two slices of this year’s World Rally Championship 2 (WRC2) action.

We caught up with the PlaceMakers-sponsored driver after he’d outclassed a field of local and overseas talent at the International Rally of Whangarei in May, crossing the line 3m 29s ahead of closest rival Esapekka Lappi of Finland.

“It felt good to be back on top and it’s been a good warm-up for Europe,” said Paddon, who won 14 of the weekend’s 16 stages and chalked up 12 stage records. “It was pretty near perfect. We had no major problems, our speed’s been good and I’ve really enjoyed driving the car.”

Runner-up Lappi was contesting the event hot on the heels of his WRC2 win in Portugal, which made the amount of daylight Paddon put between them even more positive ahead of back-to-back WRC2 rounds in Finland and Germany next month.

Paddon hasn’t been seen beyond these shores in 2013, with the homegrown hero getting valuable wheel-time in his rebuilt Evo 9, as he tries to secure enough funding to continue his assault on the prized WRC crown he’s made his long-term ambition to wear.

“Sponsorship from the likes of PlaceMakers is invaluable, but the cost of competing on the world stage year after year runs into millions of dollars,” said Paddon.

“With the right funding, we could tackle a full championship but wejust don’t have the budget for that. Right now our goal is to get back out there and go head to head with some of the best drivers from around the world.”

Paddon will be swapping his double NZRC-winning Evo 9 for the Skoda Fabia he and co-driver John Kennard ran in last year’s Super 2000 WRC rounds.

“I’m really excited to get back to Europe and prove our speed and I can’t wait to be back behind the wheel of a S2000 car!”