Hayden Paddon and Jared Hudson are odds-on-favourites for this weekend’s Rally Regione Piemonte in Italy.
“This weekend’s Rally Regione Piemonte is part of our testing and preparation of the BRC Hyundai i20N Rally2 for tarmac this season,” commented Paddon. “This will help us prepare for upcoming tarmac rounds of the European Championship (ERC).”
The event is the same as Rally Alba which Paddon competed last year, finishing fourth and is also a round of the TER Series (Tour European Rally).
The Kiwi tops the provisional European Rally Championship standings following his dramatic final-stage victory on the season-opening Rally Serras de Fafe, Felgueiras, Boticas, Vieira do Minho e Cabeceiras de Basto last month.
However, with ERC regulations allowing drivers to count all but one score, Paddon and his BRC Racing Team hadn’t originally planned to include the all-Tarmac Rally Islas Canarias on their schedules for 2023.
“Alba (Rally Regione Piemonte) is our home rally we have already won in past years. It’s a great event, that we really look to see in FIA ERC next season, well organised by passionate people in a fantastic location with challenging roads.
“We will approach it without specific preparation as it will be used to build up mileage on Tarmac, both for the team and for Hayden, with our Hyundai i20 N Rally2 before Canarias.”
Paddon has underlined his FIA European Rally Championship ERC) title intensions by confirming he will be heading to the Rally Islas Canarias (5-6 May) before returning to New Zealand for Rally Whangarei (12-14 May) and then to back to the Northern Hemisphere for Rally Poland (20-21 May).
“As if our season was not already busy, we have a huge couple of months ahead,” commented Paddon. “Together with the BRC team we have decided to compete at round 2, Rally Islas Canarias.”
The competition is expected to be high including Norwegian Mads Østberg, a previous WRC-2 World Champion (2020) who currently is second in the ERC, Frenchman Stéphane Lefebvre (2014 WRC-3 World Champion) and Finn Roope Korhonen, who is currently second in the WRC-3 world standings.
Rally Regione Piemonte (formerly Rally di Alba) takes place from 13 – 15 April and counts as round two of the Sparco Italian Rally Championship.
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