There’s a famous saying in motorsport. ‘To finish first, first you must finish’.
Hayden Paddon may not have won the Rally of Turkey, but his strategic, level-headed approach to the event helped him to secure his first podium finish of the year, and his third top-four result in a row.
Turkey was like an old-school Acropolis or Safari rally, where only the toughest survived and many of the fancied runners ruined their chances by pushing too hard and breaking their cars.
That Paddon could master the conditions and bring his Hyundai i20 WRC home unscathed says plenty about his maturity as a driver, and hopefully even more about his hopes for next season.
It was a classic endurance event, and something the WRC has been missing in recent years.
Talk that the event was too rough, or that mechanical problems had too much of an impact on the results is, in my mind, a load of hogwash.
Rallying is, and should always be, a test of endurance, whether that be a driver’s ability to master the conditions or to conserve his car in circumstances that are far from ideal.
The WRC of the 2010s is a flat-out, foot to the floor sprint to the finish that may be the perfect recipe for events like Finland or Sweden, but variety, as they say, is the spice of life.
Turkey was a welcome change and injected new life into the WRC.
Toyota’s cars were clearly off the pace in Turkey as they trailed their rivals from Hyundai, Ford and Citroen. Yet the nous of their drivers ensured they finished first and second.
It’s what winning a championship is all about, and their resultant climb in the WRC standings is testament to that – Toyota now lead the Manufacturers’ series, while Ott Tanak is now a real Drivers’ title threat after three brilliant victories in a row.
The title fight is likely to come down to a ‘winner takes all’ showdown at Rally Australia in November, and we can’t wait!
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This weekend, one of the most anticipated events of the year takes place, with the famed Ashley Forest Rallysprint, near Christchurch.
Paddon vs McRae is not a fight you’d necessarily expect to see in 2018, but that’s what we’ve got.
The New Zealander’s Hyundai i20 AP4 has been up-specced to ++ tune this weekend, and against McRae’s ex-Prodrive, ex-Possum Bourne Subaru Impreza World Rally Car, it will need every ounce of performance to take the chocolates.
Throw into the mix last year’s winner, Sloan Cox, in his hillclimb special Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 and you have the makings of one heck of a battle.
This is not the first time we’ve seen a Paddon vs McRae showdown, however. Back in 2015 they went head-to-head in a pair of Escort RS1800s at the Otago Rally, where the Kiwi came out on top.
The Ashley Forest Rallysprint promises to be one of the highlights of the year, and on current form you’d think Paddon is a shoe-in to win.
But as highlighted at the start of this column, to finish first ……
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