Hayden Paddon: WRC Debut at Rally de Espana

I am excited to report to you of our announcement of our debut in a WRC car for the upcoming Rally of Spain. We will be driving a Ford RS WRC car as part of the official Qatar M-Sport World Rally team.

To say I'm excited would be an understatement and I cannot wait to get behind the wheel of a World Rally Car for the first time. It is also an amazing opportunity that I fully intend to make the most of, to help us further our career.

A huge thanks to everyone that helped make this opportunity possible, which came about after some discussions following Rally Australia. Malcolm Wilson (team owner) and the whole M-Sport team have been fantastic in helping put this together, as have been our directors of HPRG and everyone involved.

Rally Spain will also give us a chance to show what we can do on both surfaces, as the mixed surface event comprises of 2 days of tarmac stages and the final day back on gravel. We will get a small test on both surfaces before the event to help families myself with the car, but in general the Spanish roads are roads that I enjoy. It will also be a leveller that day ones night stages will be new to everyone, so this will certainly help us.

Naturally I want to be competitive, and we will be trying hard. We also have set objectives and we have to be sensible on our WRC debut to gain as much experience as possible for the future. Firstly, to get to the finish will be a main priority, but we will also target particular stages where I aim to try and set some top 5 stage times. It wont be easy, considering we will be competing against the best drivers in the world – many of whom I look up too.

The work has now stepped up a notch as we prepare for Rally Spain. I sincerely thank you all for your continued support and we hope this is the start of something new within the WRC.

In the meantime we must also stay focused on the NZ championship, with the final round of the championship next weekend in Wairarapa. Currently we are in Auckland where Mike and Sue from Reaction Racing have been very helpful in aiding our preparations.

We will keep you posted next week during Rally Wairarapa, and of course in the build up to our WRC debut at Rally Spain – 21-24 October.