CSB - Ben Hunt - NZ Rally Championship

Talking about the final round of the NZ Rally Championship. Ben leads the championship by 12 points. Can he hold off Hayden Paddon? 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Motorsport on the Country Sport Breakfast powered by CRC five
five six made right here in New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, it's time to talk motor rallying now and this
weekend is the big one. Two time national champion Ben
Hunt will look to hold off WRC Rally winner, current
European Rally Champion and seven time national rally champion Hayden
Padden when the two go head to head in the
final round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand
Rally Championship in funger Ray. Ben Hunt joins me this

(00:30):
morning being good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Hey mate, how are you very well? Making it sound
like a big task with all of headlines, Well, it it.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Is a big task really. I mean you're leading, but
Hayden's closing in you. There's a what a twelve point
buffer between the two of you.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, it's definitely not going to be easy. You know,
I think we just need to forget about the championship
side of it. And you know, they're rode up here amazing.
It's one of the most enjoyable places of camera and
the speed and everything you can carry up here, you know,
it's that is awesome and you know it be cool
to see w our C cars back up here again.
But there's there's you know, it's going to be tricky

(01:07):
two days. You know, managing tires is pretty dry up here,
and I think there's probably going to be the biggest
challenge of just managing your tires throughout.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
The day and obviously managing the car. The mechanicals are
always a big thing. The scot has gone pretty well
for you this season, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, So you know, the Scoter is an awesome car.
It's a world really car, and you know, it's a
dream to drive, and it's you can't really say much else.
You can't compare it to you know, anything else. Really,
it's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
So what do you have to do Ben to actually
wrap up the championship this weekend?

Speaker 1 (01:43):
First of all, get to the Finnish and you know,
basically basically we need to just stay second of Hayden
most of the event, like in the day, day points
in overall, and that should be enough. If we're saying
we're a third and everything, the power stage and the
day would be even with him, I believe in which

(02:03):
then he probably went on accountback for rally wins. So
you know, I think we just need to forget about that,
Go enjoy the car, go enjoy enjoy doing it with
the team, and and you know, Sunday afternoon or either yeah,
well you'll.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Be You'll either be champion or you won't be. It's
as simple as that.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Were the twelve points.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Hayden missed the opening round in Otago, but he's there
for the rest and he's dominated. Really, he's number one
car on the road. You just let him get on
with it and you worry about the pack behind you.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, definitely. You know, it's one of those things you
just's only you and your co driver in the car
and you honestly can't do anything about anyone else. So
just go as fast as you can and try to
eliminate the risks. And yeah, like I said, it's so
enjoyable up here. So I'm really looking forward to getting underway,
said I want to.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I know that the rallies that Hayden's been there, he's
absolutely dominated. I mean he just shows he's night and
day between say, his experience on the world rally scene
and the rest of the field, isn't he Oh, definitely.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Had some you know, everyone always goes, oh, you're two
and a half minutes behind Hayden. That that raally like,
what's the story? But you know I'm a heavy des
and mckin the've got a family and do five or
six rallies a year, whereas you know, it's Hayden's you know,
he lives and breeds and that's yeah, every every weekend
he you know, he's probably driving something called he'd be

(03:24):
doing double, if not triple, the man of rallies at
the guys in his under So he's eave an incredible
driver and it's awesome having here, having him here as
a benchmark, and it obviously lifts the whole News Young
Championship up and yeah, it's but it's it's unreal to
see how much Speedy carries and your credit to him.
He's made a career out of it.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
It must be interesting driving behind him on the road,
just even because you're not close to him, but looking
at his wheel tracks and seeing the approaches he takes
to a corner.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, you can definitely see the sick time fitness, you know,
preparation for rallies, you know, going through inc cameras and
checking your notes and everything. It probably you know, it
doesn't pay much to find a second the kilometer over
other you know, when you're doing it that much. And
you know, I always say to everyone when I played tennis,

(04:13):
I trained morning and night and most weekends, and you know,
I was always on the tennis court. And if you win,
you've got dicky by everyone. So it's no different than
any sport. You need to be doing the miles or
the running or the whatever it is to to be.
You know, at the top of your sport.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
You gave up a promising career as a tennis pro
to take on rallying. Why did you do that?

Speaker 1 (04:35):
There's way more fun and burning feel.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
It's as simple as.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Obviously I still love tennis and my little brother plays
around that around the world really and you know it's
it's hard though, it's you always away and yeah, yeah,
I love I love rallying as a huge team effort.
There's you know, I think there's like thirteen people on
our team this weekend, and you can't build without any
of them, so any one of them and yeah, it's

(05:05):
just a cool yeah team experience.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
All right. So the rarely gets underway Saturday. You go
north of Fung Array. Then there's a whole lot of
stages to the south and west of fung Array on Sunday.
So Ben, we wish you the very very best of luck.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Cheers.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
That's been Hunt joining me on the show. Really nice guy.
Andy had a promising career as a professional tennis player.