Haddon Paddon: Rally Sweden

Everything is going well here in Sweden in preparation for this weekend's rally. I first went to Finland last Thursday where we were greeted with -30 degree winter conditions and heavy snow. Quite a shock after flying from Spain!

There we spent a day near Ari Vatanens home town of Tuupovaara on a rally road that was built to celebrate his 1981 world championship. During the day I got my first test of driving on snow with a group N car. I was able to get a good understanding of the grip levels and the special characteristics as well as things to be prepared for during a winter/snow rally. With the 300 odd metal studs in each tyre the grip levels are very similar to gravel although the car does slide around a little more as you can expect. But it is very enjoyable!

From Finland we flew to Norway over the weekend where we met up with our ASM Motorsport team. We were able to complete a successful test on Sunday/Monday in Norway in changing conditions, from day to night, heavy snow to ice and gravel. During the test we learn't a lot more about our Skoda S2000 and was able to try many different set-ups to learn what does and doesn't work on the car. The end result is a start set-up for Rally Sweden that I am feeling very comfortable with. You can see a video from our Sweden tests by the following link:

You can also see photos of our new Skoda in its full New Zealand theme at www.facebook.com/haydenpaddonwrc.

Now we have two days of recce ahead where as always it will be vital that we write some good pace notes on what are all new roads to us. However, the nature of the roads is very similar to that of neighbouring country Finland, fast, flowing and lots of crests, but all covered in a lot of snow.

We will keep you updated throughout the week in our build up to the event and where you will be able to keep an eye on the results.