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'This is my life': Hayden Paddon reveals grand plan to bring Kiwi rally team to WRC
Stephen Foote • December 3rd, 2024 1:00 pm
Photo: Photosport
Almost two decades on the professional stage has done nothing to dampen Hayden Paddon's passion for rallying.
Every stage, every hairpin, every time his car gets airborne - the adrenaline hits the same way it did when he was a 15-year-old prodigy during his competitive debut at Rally Canterbury all the way back in 2005.
Nineteen years and several national titles later, the pull of the steering wheel is as strong as it ever was.
"It's an addiction," Paddon told Sport Nation, just minutes after another blast around the purpose-built rally track in rural Whitford.
"I can never get bored of this, that's why I love it so much.
"The beauty of rallying is that the challenge is always changing. Whether it's the car development, or every time we go back to a stage or a rally or a road, it's always different.
"It keeps things interesting. I just love it."
Like a fine single malt, the 37-year-old - whose rally driver father got him hooked on the sport as a youngster in the quaint South Island town of Geraldine - is adamant he's getting better with age, and his recent record backs that up.
Paddon is just a couple of weeks removed from adding yet another NZ Rally title to his bulging trophy cabinet, having only last month returned from defending his European Championship crown, in the process becoming the only non-European driver to win it in consecutive years.
While his seven-year tenure in the cut-throat World Rally Championship ended in 2017, Paddon remains a fixture on podiums across the continent, fleshing out his CV as undeniably the country's GOAT rally exponent - a mantle claimed from his boyhood idol, the late great Possum Bourne.
The crucial ingredient in his success over the past two years - experience.
Photo: Photosport
"As I'm getting older, I'm hopefully getting a little bit wiser," he said.
"In this game, experience goes a long way to helping you put together a rally and not just being outright fast, but trying to be sensible about it and trying to do it in a constructive way.
"Over the years, I've learned a lot of lessons, sometimes the hard way. But as you age, you get better with that sort of stuff and I don't think I've lost any speed.
"When you combine that with some experience, the whole package I think becomes a little bit more complete."
Despite his red-hot run and as reluctant as he is to admit it, Paddon concedes he's now entering the twilight of his career, predicting another five years of prime driving in his future before hanging up his racing suit.
Familiar with the politicking involved in trying to secure one of very few seats available in the WRC, as well as the immense investment - both in time and finances - it requires, Paddon said he's at peace with the fact that realises those days are now behind him.
"If the opportunity came, you wouldn't turn it down. But I'm also realistic to know that ship has probably sailed now," he said.
"There are very limited seats in the WRC. If the sport was in a better place, for sure. But I don't want to put all my heart and energy into that, if it means I'm going to shortchange what I'm trying to do with our own team.
"I've done that for many years now and I probably did that for 10 years, just sacrificing everything into that WRC dream. My focus is on what we're doing."
Paddon's unwilling to stack all of his chips in the WRC basket when has some other exciting prospects simmering.
Photo: Photosport
And there's one in particular which will keep him in the thick of the rally action well beyond his years as a driver - a venture designed to help reinvigorate his beloved sport in Aotearoa.
The goal: To found a New Zealand team in the World Rally Championship.
Eyeing a similar model used by Team New Zealand in terms of structure and funding, Paddon and his team are already four years deep into their plan.
"That's my long-term goal. That may not even be with me driving, but we're trying to build the team.
"I want to have a team and I want to build a team - a bit like what Team New Zealand do in yachting - we want to do the same in motorsport.
"We've got our team here in New Zealand, we've got a really good group of guys, technicians, engineers, people involved. So, it's about just continuously building that and putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
"I'd like to be driving at a high level for another five years maybe. But beyond that, this is my life."
As it stands, the WRC is hugely prohibitive to new private teams entering the competition. According to Paddon's estimates, privateers require a minimum of $50 million to enter and be competitive at the most basic level.
But murmurings of a restructure that ease those start-up obstacles, including more financially viable cars, more affordable spares packages.
Paddon and his crew are hoping those changes will allow them to sneak their foot in the door, with the support of new partners TrailLite - New Zealand’s largest range of quality motorhomes and caravans - a valuable piece of that puzzle.
"TrailLite is a legendary Kiwi brand, and teaming up with a crew who share a similar drive to push the boundaries and always strive for better is a real honour," he said.
"Running costs would be much lower, meaning, all of a sudden, a privateer can enter, and that's where I see us fitting into that," he explained. "We could come in and try to be the dark horse and mix it up amongst the big teams.
"You see that in Le Mans racing, GT racing, you see it in all other forms of motorsport around the world.
"Rallying needs to go in that direction and, if and when it does, that's when the opportunity would be for us."
Photo: Photosport
Ultimately, Paddon's legacy will speak for itself. To this day, his historic WRC win in Argentina in 2016 remains the greatest accomplishment in NZ rally history.
While he's not quite ready for that level of retrospection just yet, he's already building upon the platform laid by Possum Bourne before him for the next generation of Kiwi rally hopefuls to take advantage of.
You can take the man out of rallying, but you can't take the rallying out of the man.
"This is my life and it has been since I was a kid, so I don't know anything different," Paddon said. "I've probably dug myself a pretty big hole in that respect.
"But I want to stay involved and help other young talent - not only talented drivers, but engineers, mechanics, logistics. There's a lot of good young talent around in many different areas of the sport.
"I'm pretty proud of what us and our team have achieved but we always want more. It's never enough."
