Hayden Paddon reviews his NZ campaign and latest win at Gold Rush Rally Coromandel……
I’m back in Europe now after a successful two weeks in New Zealand – including winning last weekend’s Hyundai NZ Goldrush Rally of Cormandel and with it, our fourth NZ Championship title!
This year’s NZ campaign has played a huge part in helping keep me competition fit, but has also been very enjoyable competing in some of the best rallys and roads in the world and competing alongside friends. It has been a massive team effort by our NZ team and I can’t thank them enough for the time and effort they’ve put into this project to have a car that is not only a dream to drive, but also reliable.
However, we didn’t have it all our own way in Coromandel, and made it a little difficult for ourselves with turbo hoses blowing off on 3 stages. The exact reason is still to be determined but we think a small knock to the intercooler earlier in the day shifted and misaligned all the turbo hoses under the bonnet. Never less, our 5 stage wins built us enough of a buffer to be able to hold on and wrap up the title with a round to spare. I’d like to commend the front running NZRC teams such as Brendon Reeves, Ben Hunt, Matt Summerfield, Dylan Turner, Emma Gilmour and many others who I think have done a great job with limited mileage and it has been obvious with every Rally, they have been getting faster and faster.
There is still one round to go in the NZRC with the Hyundai NZ Raglan Rally of the Coast in October, where we still have a manufacturer’s title to win for Hyundai. However this drivers’ championship is the first ever Motorsport championship Hyundai has won in NZ which I think is pretty cool.
On Friday we are testing in France in preparation for Rally Turkey, and then head to Turkey two weeks later. After Finland and my feeling with the car, I’m feeling very relaxed and confident moving forward and can’t wait to be back in the car.
Thanks for your support and talk soon.
Hayden
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