Hayden Paddon: Kiwi Motorsport driver on being named as a competitor in the Race of Champions

New Zealand will have a two-driver team for the first time at motorsport's Race of Champions in Sydney in March. 

Rally driver Hayden Paddon's been selected for the event which pits top competitors across Formula One, Indycar, Le Mans, Supercars, Nascar, and rallying against one another in a one-versus-one elimination format in identical vehicles. 

Another Kiwi will be announced in due course. 

Paddon told Mike Hosking that it’s surreal to be a part of something he always watched as a kid. 

He says there will be up to 20 drivers with a lot of top names included, so they’re up against the best of the best. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we've got good good news from motorsport. Hayden Padden
is the first New Zealander ever to be invited to
compete into the Race of Champions. Now, what's the Race
of Champions as an event that started in the eighties
originally for rally drivers went in to include though because
the others got on board and they thought this is
a bit of fun. I'll be into it. Schumark has
been on it, vetl Alonzo Jensen button next year. It's
coming to Australia, first time in the Southern Hemisphere, so

(00:20):
that's exciting. Sebastian Lobe is also going to feature against Padden,
who is with us Hayden morning, Yeah, morning, way, very exciting, definitely.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's something one of those things that you always watched
as a kid, so to be part of it's pretty surreal.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
What's the format, what literally will you be doing and
where will it be done?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
So it's based in a stadium. It's very similar to
super special stages that we're having rallies where you have
two cars up against each other racing alongside at a
big stadium. You've got a crossover bridge, so the cars
crossover and basically the first car across the finish nine wins,
and it's an elimination process, so all the cars are
eliminated and that with one winner.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Fantastic your car or their car. It's a sort of
equal cars, I take it.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, they get along three different types of cars, so
when you're racing your opponent, you're in the same cars
as each other, but throughout the vent you're constantly changing cars,
so you can never adapt.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, are they radically different cars? Do you know?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah? They change every year. Last year they had sex
on the horse power rally cross cars. They had some
single seed of cars. You've seen rally cars in the past.
It's a huge varity, so we won't know what cars
were driving exactly until closer to the event.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
And so what we've got so far Sebastian Lobes and
he he sort of knows what he's doing, doesn't he.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
He's one that a few times as well. Yeah, you're
up again. It's literally the best of the best. See,
they've already got Sebastian Vistil and Mix Schumacher, Peter Soldberg,
Jamie wind Cap and they'll be up to twenty drivers,
so yeah, there'll be a lot of top names that's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
See win Cup. So you're in a supercar, you're entire
I don't know how much racing he's done outside of supercars,
but how adaptable? Is it a skill to be an
adaptable as opposed to just being brilliant at one thing?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, definitely, Like I think Shane van Gisbergson's probably the
prime example, and that'll be an adaptible across many forms
of motorsport. But it's a good skill they have because
it means under different conditions in your sport you can
adapt quite easily. But yeah, it suits some people more
than others. I'd say it probably suits more a Raleigh
background because the type of stage and setting that it's
in is similar to what we do in our sport,

(02:25):
so it's a bit harder for the circuit guys.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Fantastic. Where are you at in the moment? What are
you doing?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well? We've got one round less in New Zealand Rally
Championship with Rally fung Ray next week and then we're
into our off season preparing for next year. So yeah,
we've had a pretty good season this year, so it's
about how we build on that and make it bigger
and better for next.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Year, fantastic, always good to talk to you. I appreciate
it very much. Hate and Pat and that, by the way,
is next year and the event is in Australia. It'll
be in Sydney and so you've got some serious talent
there which is super exciting. For more from the mic
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