You know that Thursday morning feeling? You open your eyes and you can almost spy the weekend, but there’s still 40% of the working week left. It’s little wonder some of the student population ponder the snooze button.
That won’t be the case for one lucky school goer in Palmerston North this Thursday. Snoozing would mean missing, quite literally, the ride of a lifetime. Their ride from home to lessons will be a Hyundai, a black one. Nothing too unusual about that, plenty of them around every city in New Zealand.
This Hyundai, however, belongs to seven-time New Zealand champion and defending European Rally title holder Hayden Paddon. This Hyundai is an i20 N Rally2 – less common on the streets of Palmy.
It’s Daybreaker Rally time, round four of the New Zealand Rally Championship, this week. And, once again, the event organizer Rally Race Group has delivered innovation in ways to bring rallying to the people. As well as opportunities to meet the crews and two runs around the Central Energy Trust Arena (Friday and Saturday evening) for the Harcourts AFC Super Special Stage, there’s the chance for one student to arrive in style.
The winner of the ride will be announced by local radio station MoreFM Manawatū on Wednesday morning.
“We couldn’t do what we do without the partners, volunteers and external people that make events happen,” said Paddon. “Any opportunity we can achieve giving back to these people, rides on Wednesday for volunteers and the MoreFM ride to school visit on Thursday go part of the way to thanking everyone for their support.”
While Paddon is looking forward to his chauffeur duties on Thursday morning, it’s an early night on Friday that he’s most focused on. After the Friday evening superspecial, the event proper gets going at four o’clock Saturday morning.
“I’m excited about that,” grinned Paddon. “I’ve always enjoyed competing in the dark. I was talking to DirtFish about this for the SPIN, the Rally Pod when I was in Wales a couple of weeks ago. The dark, the fog, the challenging conditions – that’s what I really enjoyed about Rally GB.
“It’s going to be a challenge at Daybreaker this week. It’s great to be going back to the event. It was a successful event [for us] last year and we’d love to replicate that [winning] result. We have some tough competition with Ben [Hunt], and Robbie [Stokes] in top-form, but overall I’m just looking forward to getting back onto those magic Manawatū and Rangitīkei stages.”
Stokes leads the New Zealand Championship by a point ahead of the fourth of six rounds of the series, but he missed the event last year.
The Ford Fiesta AP4 driver said: “For the Daybreaker our plan is a little different as we’ve not been there before and that’s going to make it a bigger challenge. It’ll be about keeping it simple as we are heading into unchartered territory. Obviously we want to keep that championship lead at the end of it, but what happens in the middle is what will happen – we will do our best.”
Fellow NZ regulars Ben Hunt (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo), Otago winner Jack Hawkeswood (Toyota GR Yaris AP4) and Dunedin star Emma Gilmour (Citroën C3 Rally2) line up in Manawatū this week.
One driver making the trip across the ditch from Australia for the first time in a while is Brendan Reeves. The popular Aussie, who drives a Paddon-tended Hyundai i20 AP4, admitted it might take him a mile or two to find his form again.
“I haven’t done a rally in a four-wheel-drive car in two and a half years, and it’s been five years since I last rallied in New Zealand,” Reeves said. “Just getting back into the rhythm will take a few stages, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.
“One of the most obvious challenges will be the early morning stages, which I’m not used to, but I really love a good night stage, so I’m looking forward to it. The roads in last year’s event looked as amazing as New Zealand’s roads always do.”
As well as an entry packed out with NZ regulars, the Daybreaker is looking forward to welcoming crews back from the South Pacific island of Vanuatu. Returning competitor Julien Lenglet is joined by Pierre-Henri Brunet and Nelson Law on the journey to some of the world’s finest roads in what’s expected to be typically changeable Kiwi spring weather.
After Friday evening’s Harcourts AFC Super Special Stage, car show and meet the crews session (6pm), the rally resumes at 4am Saturday for a day on the gravel. The route winds through Rangitikei’s Turakina Valley and towards the switchback hairpin of Ridge Road North near Mataroa, north of Taihape. A second service of the day will be held in Taihape before the teams journey south across the famed Peep-o-Day and McBeth roads.
A second meet the drivers and car show will take place in Feilding Town Centre just before midday on Saturday, followed by a 30-minute service. Crews then repeat the Peep-o-Day and McBeth sections before tackling the 19-mile Ridge Road, concluding at Pohangina.
The final action of the 2024 Daybreaker Rally is back to Palmerston North for the second shot at the superspecial stage.
