Monday, 30th June 2008

Chris West and Hayden Paddon secure free entries into the Production class on the Rally New Zealand.

Coincidently West and Paddon are both from the South Island - West from Christchurch and Paddon from Geraldine - and both drive Mitsubishis. Both achieved top results in the recent NAC Insurance Hella International Rally of Whangarei against top Asia Pacific rally drivers like Cody Croker, with West winning the event outright and Paddon second.

West said his Andrew Simms Mitsubishi team has invested a lot of time and effort preparing for this season. “And now the results are showing,” he continued. “It's just fantastic to be given the opportunity to represent the country in PWRC again.

“Realistically the New Zealand Rally Championship is the priority - we want to maximise points there - but we'd like to run in the top five or six PWRC cars. Of course, we're not going out without the aim to win – that's why Hayden and I have been given this opportunity and we want to do well.”

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Paddon noted simply that the aim is to win the P-WRC class: “We have the advantage of home roads. Top Kiwis have shown, in the past, that they are competitive against the best PWRC drivers in the world. Last year Richard Mason won a lot of stages in PWRC and came second in this class in Rally New Zealand. And this year the pace, nationally, has increased significantly.

“We want to stand out from the rest – there's no prize for running fourth or fifth; you don't really get noticed. When you get an opportunity like this, you have to use this to your advantage.

“You do get a lot more attention from international media and teams. When you're in national field, you could be running different tyres and fuel, but in PWRC you're running in identical cars so it's a level playing field and that's what everyone's looking at. I'm really focused on doing well in P-WRC, because if I do well there, I'll do well in the New Zealand Rally Championship as well.”

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