BEST: Rally New Zealand’s return
Like the dawning of a new day, the announcement that Rally New Zealand was officially included on the 2020 World Rally Championship calendar was the best news rally fans had all year.
The rally was last held as a WRC round in 2012 when it was on rotation with Rally Australia.
But the controversial rotation system never really worked for either event. Sponsors were hard to get, and harder to retain, and staff who worked on the event for one year, and then not the next, became problematic.
Finally, and after years of lobbying, MSNZ were given the green light for the event’s return on an, at this stage, one-off basis while Rally Australia looks for a new location.
As good as the news of Rally New Zealand’s return is, the country needs to treat the 2020 rally as if it’s the last time that the series will ever grace its shores.
Not because it will be, but because that if it’s the best rally of the year, then the FIA and the WRC Promoter will find it hard not to grant New Zealand another event in years to come.
It’s far easier to be in the championship looking out, rather than out of the championship looking in, which is Rally NZ’s current position.
Regardless of what happens after 2020, the return of the World Rally Championship is a boon for New Zealand rallying, and is not only long overdue, but well deserved.
WORST: Hayden Paddon’s WRC return
Hayden Paddon’s career as a World Rally Championship driver effectively came to an end in 2019, as a stream of unpredictable events turned his aspirations from possible to improbable.
The likeable Kiwi was shown the door at the Hyundai World Rally Team late in 2018 when the German-based squad shock the rallying world by signing nine-time World Champion Sebastien Loeb to a six-event program.
They were the six rallies that should have been Paddon’s, but when a driver of Loeb’s calibre comes a knocking, it would be a brave team manager who hangs out the ‘no vacancy’ sign.
As it turned out, Loeb wasn’t all that impressive in the Hyundai I20 WRC – the first time the Frenchman had ever driven anything other than a Citroen. But that mattered little to Paddon.
Instead, he set his sights on a WRC return, and with the blessing (and support) of Hyundai New Zealand, he raised the funds to drive an M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC at Rally Finland in late July.
Things were going well in testing, until a freak accident spat the car off the road and rolled it into a ball.
M-Sport chiefs were quick to exonerate Paddon of any blame, but with the car unfixable and the event rapidly approaching, his Rally Finland hopes were dashed.
A drive in an R5 Fiesta followed at Rally GB, before Paddon planned to contest the final round of the WRC in Australia – an event he finished second at in 2018.
Again, however, the nothing went to plan, and when horrific bushfires along the NSW coast forced the cancellation of the rally in the days leading up to the start, Paddon was left with nothing to show from two potential WRC starts.
He couldn’t have been any more unlucky. Not only did it mean that he was unable to show that he still has the pace to compete at the highest level in the WRC, but the small window that was open for him was slammed shut, with little hope of a reprieve in 2020.
There’s still hope that he’ll get a World Rally Car drive for Rally New Zealand, but by then he’ll be nearly two years out of the main game, and his chances of a top finish will have diminished even further.
Australia’s Chris Atkinson was left out in the cold when Subaru unexpectedly stopped their WRC program in the mid-2000s. Now New Zealand’s favourite son has also been left thinking “what if”?
Paddon has bold plans for the future, but the unfinished business of the WRC is likely to always leave a bitter taste in his mouth.
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