Seventeen years ago Hayden Paddon arrived in Wales for the first time. Wide-eyed and excited, he couldn’t wait to get started on the road to international rallying. This week? The end of the road might just have come into sight.
Don’t be fooled, anybody who knows the New Zealander knows he’ll never stop in the sport, he’s a rally driver through and through, but his time competing in Europe might well be done. This week’s Rali Ceredigion looks likely to be the last European Rally Championship round for the defending European Rally champion.
“It could be the last,” Paddon told DirtFish. “If it is, it would be ironic given that this was my first international event [Rally GB] in 2007. In 17 years, I’ve come full circle. My relationship with Hyundai New Zealand is a very strong relationship, I can’t turn my back on that and we’re doing some good projects with them back at home.
“Maybe it means we might turn our attention to go somewhere else, so yeah, I’ve sort of been talking about it a little bit, but this rally could be the end. There may not be a lot of opportunity for me to be involved with the brand in Europe next year.”
Paddon has been an ERC regular in the past two seasons but opportunities to return are drying up
As well as seven (and counting) domestic titles, Paddon and his long-time co-driver John Kennard have won a world title (PWRC in 2011), a WRC round and, of course, one ERC crown (and counting).
“Aw, look,” grinned Paddon, typically steering the conversation away from anything too emotional, “we’ve done a lot more than what I ever thought. It’s been a hell of a 17 years.
“We’ve achieved a lot of good things – some missed opportunities as well, I think we could have achieved more. In saying that you can’t focus on that, you’ve got to appreciate the opportunities that you’ve had and we’ve enjoyed it. We’ve met a lot of good people, done some amazing things, made life memories, so it’s been pretty cool.
“As a driver though, I’ve still got a lot more to give and hopefully [will] be going for a number of years yet, just maybe in different parts of the world.”
In terms of that original Rally GB 17 years ago, any memories?
Paddon laughed: “Yeah, we retired. Twice and superallied both times. I don’t think we finished. I think it was the first stage we ran into a culvert and broke the steering. Second time we came back as part of the Pirelli Star Driver program.
“My best memories of those events [Rally GB] would be doing the night stages, driving through the fog in really tricky conditions. I remember 2011, we were in the R4 Subaru and, at times, you couldn’t see beyond the end of the bonnet.
“I’ve always enjoyed competing [in Wales]. It’s a great place. Seventeen years ago I arrived here, everything was so different – it was the other side of the world. It’s been an incredible journey.”
