You all know who I'm referring to - even with just a passing interest in the WRC, you'd need to have been off-planet to have been unaware of the stunning performance of this rookie. Hayden Paddon drove his way into the record books and into the hearts of thousands of rally fans world wide.
A quick disclaimer here - I've been following Hayden's progress since before he won the Pirelli Star Driver opportunity, and I've been a fan all this time, so I hope I can be forgiven for sounding a little breathless at times. But as far as humanly possible, this post is my best attempt to add my comments in an objective way. So without further preamble...
The rally fraternity knew something special was happening on Friday's first stage. Sebastién Ogier was on road-sweeping duty at the head of the field while at the other end, Paddon made the most of his cleaner line and began to deliver splits that were not simply competitive, they were quicker than all his competitors. We listened and watched spellbound as he built split-by-split until stage end and took fastest time, 5.3 seconds quicker than the World Champ. It wasn't the first scratch that he'd accomplished - that had happened in Spain the previous year - but this was impressive.
At the stopline interview, Hayden admitted his surprise that the time had been so good, commenting that they hadn't actually been pushing at all... they had merely been adhering to their pre-rally strategy of setting a comfortable pace. So, although they'd achieved a great time, that wasn't about to change their plan.
The split times for the day's second stage were even more impressive, the young Kiwi and his not-so-young co-driver combining to deliver a series of ever-increasing improvements, to complete some 11.0 seconds quicker than the next-fastest competitor, Jari-Matti Latvava. Something extraordinary was happening here. Two such runs back to back showed that it was no fluke. And they weren't achieved through the misfortunes of others - this was genuine pace at work.
Watching and listening to this unfold literally gave me shivers. When the stage time was announced, I was moved to leap up from the sofa, punching the air and yelling "YES!" at the sort of volume that gave my rally widow the fright of her life. I promptly apologised for my reaction, declaring that I'd be more restrained in future.
And I just as promptly failed that restraint when at the end of the third test, Paddon took scratch yet again. It's one of those times when you just know that you've witnessed something world changing. And that's a time and a date that I doubt I'll ever forget. I suspect that there's several thousand other rally followers in whose memory that Friday morning, 12/06/2015, in Sardegna will have been burned. Paddon beat his teammate Thierry Neuville by 4.2 seconds, and led the rally overall by 25.3.
In my admittedly less-than-objective view, that performance would have been enough to confirm Hayden's and John's "real deal" status as deserving a factory seat in the WRC. That it was followed by times that not only restricted the competition's inroads into his lead, but also took time back from the World Champ (2.6 seconds on SS7), puts the significance of Paddon's performance into perspective. He wasn't simply good; he was outstanding, leading the rally for a massive 16 special stages out of the total 23.
Despite driving a car with broken gearbox mounts, on the final day the crew managed a fourth scratch time, 2.1 seconds ahead of second-placed Latvala. Paddon was in the top 3 on 12 stages, an impressive performance for any top level WRC driver let alone one who has yet to complete a full 13 round season in his Hyundai i20WRC, and that car a generation behind every other WRC competitor vehicle in engine development.
It wasn't quite the fairytale ending we fans would have wished for the Kiwi ace, for as we all know now, Hayden made a driver error on SS17, spinning under braking and stalling the i20. The precious seconds lost in restarting and getting back up to speed cost him his lead and Ogier led the event for the first time. Among the fans was optimism that despite the setback, Paddon was still in with a chance, Ogier's lead a 'mere' 12.6 seconds at that point, but cruel fate struck on the following stage, an embedded boulder on the racing line smashing the Hyundai's gearbox mounts and from there until the rally's end, the Kiwi's mission was to bring the car home in 2nd and in one piece.
History has recorded the fact that he succeeded, and Hayden and John celebrated a richly deserved second placing overall, much to the delight of their fans, old and new. That he was so close to achieving outright victory at this stage of his carreer is astonishing. In the space of two rallies, something extraordinary took place in the WRC #20 car, and while it's tempting to think that we were all predicting this moment, if I'm honest, I didn't believe we'd see it without many more overt signs in the events leading up to it.
It'll be impossible to define exactly what happened here but some things were apparent.
Probably the most important was Hayden's decision to compromise with the car. He decided along the way that instead of the car being made to match his driving style, that he would adapt to the car. And so it seems that they sort of 'met in the middle' - the car fits Hayden better, and Hayden adapts to suit his car. And while he would admit that it's not a perfect relationship, it's the base for the sort of compromise that just needs a small tweak here, a nudge there, for them to work splendidly together.
No more radical surgery of setup or driving style - they're at a place where they'll be competitive on the loose stuff no matter where they compete.
Now, about those tarmac stages...
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