Q&A:
Hayden
Paddon
(part two)

What would winning the SWRC in New Zealand mean to you and how important would it be in your efforts to raise enough backing to complete the season? “Nothing beats winning at home, especially as we will have a lot of support this year and we have some great local companies such as ENZED, PlaceMakers and Giltrap Group supporting us. A good result here would also help our efforts to raise the remaining funds for 2012.”

It’s winter in New Zealand right now. What kind of weather do you expect on the rally? “The weather will play a part in this rally. At this time of year, we could have three fine days of weather, or if it turns bad, it could be a very wet muddy rally. This could be really interesting as Michelin have nominated the hard compound tyre. Wet conditions for the rally would be good as it would close the gap between the WRC and Super 2000 cars, but either way it will be good.”

A great deal is said about the cambered roads in New Zealand. Briefly, how difficult are the stages and what’s the best way to master them? “Each day of the rally is quite unique. The day one stages have a lot less camber but, if wet, there are also a lot of grip level changes. Day two north of Auckland are the best roads in the world and do have a lot of camber, and often you are jumping between corners. On these roads you cannot afford to get out of the camber, but also straight lines and carrying corner speed with the camber is key. Any sliding you cannot use the full effect of the camber and you loose a lot of speed. But generally they’re really smooth and fast flowing roads that are a joy to drive on.”

We are used to the stages around Raglan taking place on Sunday morning rather than Friday morning. How will this change your approach? “Friday will be the toughest day of the rally. Eight long stages, 200 kilometres of stages and only one remote service in between. If the conditions are unsettled, then tyres will play a big role, but the Whaanga Coast stage has been so pivotal to deciding the outcome of the rally in the past, I don’t think it will be any different despite being on the first day rather than the last. We have a plan for the whole rally though and think a lot of time can be gained on Saturday’s stages, which I know well. I have won the International Rally of Whangarei twice, which uses many of Saturday’s WRC stages.”