Paddon heads off to Europe for training

ALAN McDONALD

EDINBURGH EDUCATION: Geraldine's Hayden Paddon is leaving for the first part of his Pirelli Star Driver Scholarship today, but it won't include getting behind the wheel.

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Hayden Paddon's dream of competing against the world's best is about to come to fruition.

The 22-year-old from Geraldine jets to Scotland today to prepare for Pirelli Star Driver training in Europe.

His quest for success in this year's Production World Rally Championship starts with a training programme in Edinburgh.

Paddon and his Blenheim-based co-driver, John Kennard, will participate in the three-day fitness training and preparation programme being run at the Edinburgh University.

Paddon is still pinching himself at the opportunity, which is worth around $1 million.

"It still seems a little surreal, not having had any physical contact with the team, Ralliart Italy, which runs our Pirelli Star Driver cars, or the car itself at this point, with just over a month to our first rally in Turkey."

The 22-year-old double New Zealand rally champion, who spent the weekend testing in the Waimate Forest, said it was fantastic that it is almost time to go rallying again.

"This first trip to Europe signals the next major step in my international rallying career."

Paddon won the Asia Pacific round of the global Pirelli Star Driver competition during Rally Australia last September.

The FIA-developed driver development programme provides Paddon with a fully-funded Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X in which to compete in six rounds of this year's World Rally Championship.

Four of these events offer the chance to earn points in the Production World Rally Championship, and Paddon and Kennard will also contest two other world rallies – Rally New Zealand and Rally Japan.

Paddon describes the Edinburgh training programme as being similar to New Zealand's own Motorsport Academy.

"There will be rigorous fitness testing, and advice on nutrition and how to best prepare ourselves for the year ahead.

"Both John and I have been working on our fitness hard over the past three to four months." Paddon said he had made a lot of progress.

"I am fitter than I have been before, and still I am not halfway to where I want to be, so physical fitness is something that I will continue to build over the course of the year.

"It's definitely going to be a physically and psychologically demanding year, but also an extremely exciting year as John and I get to experience the fantastic challenges of rallying all over the world."

Paddon and Kennard then fly to the northern Italian city of Sondrio to Ralliart Italy's operational base.

As well as running the five identical bright-yellow Pirelli cars, the team campaigns the Lancer EVO X of 2009 PWRC champion Armindo Araujo, who came third in the production class in this year's opening WRC round in Sweden.

Paddon said they will spend another few days there, meeting the team and driving the cars for the first time.

"We'll have one day of tarmac testing and one day on gravel."

Paddon is already familiar with a left-hand-drive Lancer rally car, which are the same Mitsubishi cars used by last year's first five Pirelli Star Drivers, which included New Zealander Mark Tapper.

It will be another step up for Paddon,

"I am looking forward to driving the newer model Mitsubishi compared to the Evo IX that we campaign here.

"The Evo X is a bigger car, but they are also a lot more powerful and better balanced."

Having mechanics doing the work on the car will be different for Paddon, who does much of the between-event work on his own cars himself.

"I'll have enough to be dealing with without worrying about working on the car.

"I imagine when we first get to Italy and sit in the car that it may take a moment to take it all in, because the journey really starts now."

Paddon said he and Kennard will need to make sure that they are on top of their game from the start because testing is restricted.

"We need to make the most of every possible opportunity to get behind the wheel of the EVO X and test it on various roads and set-ups – essentially an all-new car to us."

They are due to return to New Zealand on March 23 before flying back to Europe and their first event, which is Rally Turkey, scheduled to start on April 15.

- © Fairfax NZ News