You don’t have to be the fastest to win races, although it helps. Neither do you have to be the biggest to win battles.
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was won by the British naval fleet against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the Napoleonic Wars. The significance of this battle was that 27 British ships led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated 33 French and Spanish ships under French Admiral Villeneuve. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships and the British lost none. It was Nelson’s tactical genius that won the day. He out-thought and positioned the opposing fleet and the battle is now regarded as one of the greatest victories in English history.
The key to any success is to have an objective, then plan accordingly and then stick to it! That is why World Rally driver Hayden Paddon is obtaining success this season. That is why he has finished third in last weekend’s WRC Rally Turkey.
Step back and look at his season so far and there is a plan falling into place, the objective being to get back into a full-time WRC program in 2019.
Having his 2018 campaign compromised from a poor 2017 season, Paddon has obviously set about maximising his opportunities. This has included a limited WRC campaign and competing in the New Zealand Rally Championship.
An underlying theme that has come through his Turkey campaign has been about sticking to the plan.
After Day 1 having moved into sixth position, Paddon said, “We had a plan from the start, aiming to be sensible, look after the car and keep the driving nice and clean.”
After Day 2 having moved up into third position he commented, “It has been complete mayhem out there today. We have stuck to our plan, and it seems to have paid off. It didn’t quite work out yesterday but this has, at times, felt like a different rally compared to Friday.”
Kate Gordon-Smith’s rally reports – Paddon secures third in rocky Turkish rally – “Kiwi rally driver Hayden Paddon has secured his first podium finish of the 2018 World Rally Championship season in Turkey. With his British co-driver Seb Marshall, Paddon stuck to their plan of being consistently fast and clean to finish Rally Turkey with a strong result for Hyundai Motorsport and bring home his seventh WRC career podium finish.”
Paddon went on to say, “It’s about playing the long game in this rally. When you’re in ‘no man’s land’ it can be really hard because you have to look after the car. It can be really painful but it’s what you have to do.”
Rally Turkey has been a great example of what can be achieved through planning to a set objective. It was not straight forward, it was a tough ‘battle’ in which Paddon and Marshall had to keep in mind their overall objective. What a great result!
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