Hayden Paddon: WRC Rally Australia

We have completed the final day of Rally Australia with a clean sweep of 6 stage victories to cap off a rally of ‘what could have been’. Nevertheless the times and speed was always as important if not more important than the result, and we are happy with the speed we had throughout the weekend.

Today we didn’t have any problems and had a smooth run through the stages. The first two stages on both the loops did not suit our S2000 car. The long corners combined with a soft sandy surface meant that our lack of engine torque really hindered us. Then the final stage of both loops was a hard packed more flowing stage which meant we could carry more momentum. This worked in our favor and we were able to set better times on this stage. In fact we even managed 6th overall amongst the WRC cars on the final stage.

Despite missing out on the win, I think we bounced back as good as we could have done, and hopefully the people that we are trying to impress will look through another unfortunate mechanical failure that we had that was through no ones fault.

As for our next event, we have next weekends Spring Rally driving a BDA escort (Tonys from Stadium Cars car), followed by the final round of the NZRC where we hope to try and win the championship. In terms of WRC, we are still trying to find opportunities and have not ruled out anything for this year yet, although at present there is no more budget left. It would be great if there was an opportunity to get in a WRC car for one of the final two rounds, however this is a long way from happening yet.

An enjoyable weekend here though and I can not thank everyone enough. A huge thanks to all our loyal partners but to also all our fans and supporters who were cheering us on on the stages. It was an amazing feeling seeing so much Kiwi support! Also our team did an incredible job and they really all went above and beyond to get the car going as well as it did. Thanks Dad, John, Katie, Math, Neil, AD, Wayne and Choice. Also BRR was a big help in helping us with preparing the car before leaving Europe and helping us get up to speed with running our own Skoda S2000 car.

In terms of this Skoda, it is still for sale. However in the meantime the car will go to NZ where we will do some promotional work and displays with this one in a kind car over the next couple of months.

Thanks again for all your support. Im sure our luck will turn soon and we will be able to back up our speed with results.