This Saturday 23 October 2021 marks a milestone of the first official competition for Hyundai Kona EV rally car with Hayden Paddon at the wheel. Paddon is competing in the open class category of the Horsepower Hillclimb which is part of the Waimate 50 Motorsport Festival over Labour weekend.
The two-day event is a 4.0km gravel hillclimb on Parkers Bush Road, near the South Canterbury town of Waimate, being run by Waimate 50 Motorsport Inc. The course includes an elevation increase of more than 250 metres, tight and technical sections, and fast crests to finish at the White Horse Monument.
“The road is quite fast and steep,” commented Paddon. “It probably doesn’t play to the strengths of the EV car which are its low centre of gravity and handling, probably not enough corners but it will be a really good test to see what the car can do.”
The Hyundai Kona EV rally car has reached the point in its development timeline when Paddon Rallysport is ready to run it in full competition. Paddon has done a number of demonstration runs in the vehicle previously. This event allows the team to gather much more information to use in their continued development work for the EV rally car project which first started in August 2019.
The recent release of MotorSport New Zealand’s electric vehicle guidelines means that car clubs organising events have safety guidelines to work with for this technology which is new for New Zealand motorsport.
“It’s a big milestone for us to be competing in the first place and, as a team, we can take pride in that,” said Paddon. “We’ll see how competitive we can be. To begin with, it’s making sure the car runs successfully and sets times for each run on the hillclimb course, people can see it action.
“Obviously, we’ll do the best job we can competition-wise but not putting any pressure on ourselves as the pressure to get to this point has been so long. It’s about enjoying the moment, enjoying the milestone as a team and whatever result comes will be a bonus.”
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