Mar
10
Hayden Paddon: Pirelli Star Driver
Hi
Hope that you all had a great weekend. Our testing over the weekend in our Evo9 went great and we are confident that with the information we gathered from our test that we will be able to put together a faster package than what we had last year.
Leading up to the test there were plenty of early morning finishes getting the car back together and ready for the test. We then headed down to the forest early Saturday morning where we spent over 13 hours trying new suspension and diff set-ups. Obviously from the results we achieved last year we have a strong package already and when you get to this stage the steps of development get smaller and smaller which are ultimately harder to find. But we made quite a few steps forward with the car which is very promising especially as we have some more development to do based off the information from the weekend.
A huge thanks to the whole team for helping get everything ready and in place for the test and their work during our long day in the forest. Also a huge thanks to Murray Coutes from MCA Suspension in Australia for coming over to help with the fine tuning of our dampers. We now have a few changes to make to the car before we undertake one further test before we leave for Rally New Zealand in late April. We were also lucky over the weekend that Sloan Cox and their team joined our test with their Evo 10. As well as us helping them with some advice and guidance it also gave me a chance to have my first drive of an Evo 10, before we head to Italy on Tuesday to have our first drive of our Evo 10 that we will be driving for the season. They are a totally different car which is obvious from their appearance, but also their power distribution and their great handling capabilities. We now have no doubt that the Evo 10 given the right set-up are a faster car than our current Evo 9.
A huge thanks to the Cox family for travelling down from Rotorua to give me the chance to get to grips with an Evo 10 so that I can hit the ground running in just over a weeks time when we begin testing with the Pirelli Star Driver Team.
Now I have a day and a bit to tie up all the loose ends, accumulate and analyse the data from the weekend as well as pack my bags before we depart from Christchurch mid Tuesday afternoon. I cannot wait to get over there, meet the team and team-mates, and start what is going to be an exciting year. While we are in the UK before our training program begins, John and I will be spending a day with Rob Wilson, a reknown driver trainer that Mikko Hirvonen (Ford World Rally Team) works closely with. I will keep you up to date with progress as much as I can, but will have daily updates through our website www.haydenpaddon.com.