Jul
6
Hayden Paddon: A win on Rally Whangarei
Hi,
We have successfully completed the final day of Rally Whangarei and have hang on for our third victory of this event. We won all but one of today’s eight stages and the final winning margin was 3 minutes and 55 seconds over fellow Kiwi Emma Gilmour. The weekend has been perfect and everything has run like clockwork, thanks to the whole team.
The expected bad weather that was forecasted for today did arrive which made conditions very tricky. We knew that being first on the road today would be a slight advantage but we also knew that the repeated run of the four stages would be very slippery. With this in mind we targeted the morning loop stages to achieve our main goal of the day – stage records. With a healthy overnight lead we did not want to fall into the same trap as we did at Rally New Zealand where we cruised to the finish, especially as this weekend was all about seat time and developing my driving. So we targeted stage records, of which we set 3 new stage records from the 4, including the one from 2004 that had eluded us in previous years.
During the first loop we were pushing on two stages very hard and things felt very comfortable despite the wet conditions. It was also the most fun and the most confidence that I have had behind the wheel before. During the afternoon stages with the worsening conditions, we backed off a notch to concentrate on getting to the end and completing a perfect weekend for the whole team.
To stand on the top of the podium at the end with the New Zealand National Anthem in the background is a very special feeling and now the target is to carry this confidence and development that we have done with my driving this weekend onwards into the WRC with the remaining Pirelli rounds. I am also being realistic that it is a completely different kettle of fish overseas but that is now the target which I believe with a little more time and experience we can do.
So all in all a perfect weekend, 1st overall, 1st Asia Pacific Championship, 1st Pacific Cup and 1st New Zealand Rally Championship.
A huge thanks to everyone that has made this weekend possible for us, including the team who as usual have done a incredible job prior and during the event. Thanks Dad, John, Math, Neil, AD, Rob, Katie, Jackie and to all our sponsors and supporters. Also a huge thanks to the event organisers and volunteers who had to deal with the dreadful weather while making the event possible for us!
Tomorrow we head home, then it is a busy 2 weeks getting the car rebuilt and packed for Japan. Also in the meantime we have a lot of preparation and training to do for Finland which we leave for in just over 2 weeks time.
Hayden