‘‘Shane van Gisbergen is going to be fast and I think the top five in WRC2 is going to be close’’ Hayden Padd

Crowd favourite Hayden Paddon has a clear goal of what he wants to achieve at Rally New Zealand and hopes testing this weekend will help him achieve that.

The 35-year-old will have the eyes of the sporting nation on him from Thursday when Rally NZ makes its return as a World Rally Championship event.

But don’t expect him to win the whole thing, or even be in contention. What will be important for Paddon is taking out the WRC2 category in his Hyundai i20N.

Despite his best efforts, Paddon wasn’t able to get a seat in a WRC1 car for his home rally, so won’t be mixing it up with the likes of Ott Ta¨nak, Kalle Rovanpera¨ and Sebastien Ogier.

Instead, he’ll be competing in the support championship and even though it is theoretically possible to still win Rally NZ overall, in reality there’s no chance of him being competitive with the new hybrid-powered Rally1 cars.

‘‘We’re here to try to win WRC2,’’ Paddon said.

‘‘I would have loved to have been right up the front and competing. We tried our hardest to get into a WRC1 car, but it just wasn’t possible.

‘‘Nowadays, the gap between a WRC1 and WRC2 car is just too great,’’ he added. ‘‘You can be the fastest driver in the world, but you’re never going to beat a Rally1 car in a Rally2 car.

‘‘So we have to focus on the things we can control, which is to be competitive in Rally2. There is some good competition there and it’s still going to be an exciting fight within WRC2.’’

Only a few of the regular WRC2 drivers are making the trip to New Zealand, with Poland’s Kajetan Kajetanowicz, who is fourth in the championship in his Skoda Fabia Evo, the leading driver.

Other European WRC2 drivers Armin Kremer (Netherlands) and Miguel Diaz-Aboitiz (Spain) will be battling with local hopes, including Paddon, Supercars star

Shane van Gisbergen and Ben Hunt, plus Australian Rally Champion Harry Bates.

‘‘For sure, we would have liked to have seen more come down,’’ Paddon said of the other leading European WRC2 drivers.

‘‘In Europe the WRC2 competition is stronger than WRC1, in

terms of the amount of cars and drivers.

‘‘But it’s obviously a long way and logistically and financially it’s a big commitment for a European team to come down here, which is maybe why they haven’t come.

‘‘We can’t dwell on that, there are really strong New Zealand entries and a strong Australian entry, not before have we seen the Australian champion up against the New Zealand champion in the same rally, so to have Harry Bates over here is awesome.

‘‘Shane van Gisbergen is going to be fast and I think the top five in WRC2 is going to be close.’’

At great expense, Paddon had his recently acquired Hyundai i20N flown from Europe to NZ.

To prepare the car, Paddon competed in Rally Estonia in July – although had to pull out due to catching Covid-19 – then Rally Finland and says work continues to be done on the car.

‘‘We made some good gains with the car while we were in Europe,’’ Paddon said. ‘‘Unfortunately, while it was better for my confidence in the car, we were perhaps losing some performance in it.

‘‘Now with the car back in New Zealand, we’ve got another test session this weekend, just to try to dial it in.’’

When it comes to who will win the WRC1 category, Paddon believes the weather will have an impact, especially for leader Kalle Rovanpera¨ , who’ll be the first car on the road for Friday.

‘‘If it’s dry, for the guys at the front it will be very hard for them to be competitive because we know how much road sweeping plays a part here,’’ he said.

‘‘If that’s the case, you’ve got Sebastien Ogier at the back of the field, who’s in the box seat.

‘‘If it’s wet or even damp, the grip is always best up the front and then I think it will be a twoway fight between Kalle and [2019 champion] Ott Ta¨ nak, these are fast roads that they excel on.’’