Kiwi support for Paddon

Hayden Paddon enjoyed plenty of supporters at last weekend’s Rally Australia with enthusiastic Kiwis evident everywhere. More than 100 ardent Kiwi motorsport fans – organised by the team and backed by sponsors including Vehicle Inspection NZ – expressed their allegiances loudly during the three-day event. The self-styled Kiwi WRC Invasion attracted attention in their distinctive dark-blue Paddon RallySport supporters’ livery with the hashtag #KiwiWRCInvasion trending on Twitter. Paddon says: “Every spectator point, service and stop line was full of Kiwis with flags. The rally world certainly knew that we were in town. A huge thanks to our team and all our partners – VINZ, PlaceMakers, Pak’nSave and Hyundai NZ.” Rally Australia marked Paddon’s fourth event with Hyundai Motorsport and with two further events – October’s Rally de Espana and November’s Wales Rally GB – to run, he will have a short spell in New Zealand before returning to his base in Frankfurt.

REPORT FROM RALLY AUSTRALIA

Hayden Paddon and John Kennard took their best-ever result in a World Rally Championship car with a well-deserved sixth place in Australia. After an intense battle with the Citroën crew of Mads Østberg and Jonas Andersson throughout the event, the Kiwis were perfectly positioned to take advantage of Østberg’s demise with a broken suspension on the penultimate stage of the 20-stage rally based at Coffs Harbour, NSW. Paddon and Kennard also finished the best of the three Hyundai Motorsport crews, but it was the battle with Østberg that Paddon seemed to enjoy most. He says: “We’ve made good progress in terms of performance and speed since Finland and we’re closer to the leaders. We’ve done everything the team has asked of us. “We were in the right place to take advantage of Østberg’s problems and there was never more than eight seconds between Mads and I, so it was exciting to have a close fight.” Paddon and Kennard started the third leg determined to regain the sixth position overall they’d lost to Østberg on the second day. They completed the day’s first test – the longest 24.72km stage with the sixth-quickest time and reduced the gap to Østberg from 7.3 to 3.1 seconds.