Hayden Paddon recently doubled up on his European Rally Championship title count. He’d won it with a round to spare in 2023, even though he retired on his seventh and final outing. Fast forward a year and he had to scrape together funds to take on the season finale and score the points needed to confirm title number two.
Throughout this season he insisted the overall quality of participation in the championship had been going up and up. He’d managed only one podium in the first six events, regularly defeated by local and surface specialists like Yoann Bonato in the Canary Islands, Oliver Solberg in Sweden, Georg Linnamaë in Estonia, Andrea Crugnola in Italy and Dominik Stříteský in Czechia.
One-time WRC2 champion Mads Østberg had also been expected to contend for the title but managed only two top-five finishes before his season was curtailed by an accident in Rome that left his co-driver Patrik Barth injured.
Finding evidence outside the ERC to validate Paddon’s assessment was the missing part of the argument. But there’s been a few signs that Europe’s continental series has finally kicked up a notch in terms of quality.
Mārtiņš Sesks had been Paddon’s main title rival in 2023. Wins in Poland and Latvia formed the backbone of his title tilt that year – which then translated to a pair of stunning maiden Rally1 outings in the WRC this season.
Paddon won't return to defend his ERC crown, opening the door for the likes of Miko Marczyk and Mathieu Franceschi
But two results on Central European Rally also suggested the needle is moving in the right direction. Filip Mareš, once an ERC Junior champion, finished second in WRC2 on his second appearance at world level, with fellow ERC regular Miko Marczyk completing the top three. For both, it was their first time on a WRC podium.
It was a huge turnaround from their ERC campaigns, where neither had stood on the podium all season.
“I was not thinking before this event it’s possible,” Marczyk told DirtFish. “We were fighting for the whole year in the ERC, that was eight rounds, and we were not on the podium for the eight rounds of ERC. Finally, we were on the third place of ERC season, but that was our first podium in WRC2 here.”
Paddon isn’t coming back to defend his ERC crown, opening up the possibility of a new champion in 2025. Marczyk is hoping he can achieve exactly that.
Mareš and Marczyk achived breakthrough podiums on the WRC stage
“I hope we will start next year in European Rally Championship,” said Marczyk. “It’s a proper series for our possibilities, for my driving technique, for me and Szymon [Gospodarczyk, co-driver]. Our best [championship] placing there is third and I hope one day we can fight there for first place.”
Whether his CER podium can translate to ERC title form next year remains a mystery – but that being the case goes some way to illustrating Paddon’s point that the ERC is as competitive as it’s ever been.
“It’s tough to say now because we will start in six months,” said Marczyk of his title chances. “It depends on my performance level, of the competitors and many other things.
“This year it was possible to fight for the vice champion because Hayden was much faster. But I’m open for it and I think we have some skills and possibilities for sure to fight for the podium. And if we are on the podium places, then maybe it will be first or second.”
