Two young rally aces are upping the ante on their international ambitions this season after announcing their intentions to run in the full six-event Asia-Pacific championship.
Former Dunedin driver Emma Gilmour, who is now based in Hamilton and Geraldine's Hayden Paddon have boosted their budgets for attempts at reclaiming the title collected three times by their late fellow kiwi Possum Bourne.
Gilmour (29) becomes team mate to current title holder Australia's Cody Crocker in the Singapore-based Motor Image Racing Team. The pair will each be driving the latest MY09 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Production Class rally cars in the 2009 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.
Along with Paddon in his rebuilt Mitsubishi Evo 8 - used in his 2007 campaign - they contest Australia's Rally Queensland (May), New Zealand's Rally of Whangarei, plus the Japanese, Malaysian, and Indonesian rounds of the series before the final event in China (November).
In between these off-shore commitments, both New Zealanders will compete in their five-round national championship and Paddon will add the World Rally Championship's Australia round to his list.
Gilmour described stepping up to this level of competition for a full championship as a dream come true.
"Being able to do so with the team that has won the Asia-Pacific series for the past two years, and as team mate to the driver who has won the series for the past three years, is going to make a big difference,'' she said.
Gilmour has experienced some of the conditions she will face in the Asia-Pacific series, having previously competed in Australia and Japan. She has also gained recent knowledge of the road types she will rally on in the South East Asian rounds of the series, having just completed testing with her new team in Malaysia. The session was used to fine-tune the handling and performance of the team's new cars, which have been prepared with the support of Subaru Technia International (STI) in Japan, and Possum Bourne Motorsport in New Zealand.
"The new car feels awesome, and being able to compare my times against Cody's at the test has been both helpful and encouraging.''
Paddon's driving curriculum vitae includes rallying in Malaysia and Thailand last year. Competing overseas and at home this year marked the realisation of making rally driving his sole job.
"This is massive for my career and almost like a full-time drive,'' Paddon said.
He will retain his Marlborough based co-driver John Kennard for a fourth season, while Gilmour becomes not only the first female driver to contest the Asia-Pacific series but with Rotorua's Tarryn Cox (19) as co-driver, forms the first all-female crew.
After winning last year's New Zealand Rally Championship at 21, Paddon wants to develop his driving skills in different terrains and conditions.
"It's a fine line between speed and being too careful, so there's no better way to learn about it than to put it into practice,'' he said.
During the off-season his team have rebuilt both their championship-winning left-hand drive Mitsubishi Evo 9 and their Evo 8. They plan to start the Asia-Pacific series driving the older car, while they hit the ground running here in New Zealand with the well-prepared later model.
"The goal this year is to be as fast as possible here in New Zealand, winning as many stages and rallies as we can. However for our international programme we have to keep in mind that these are new events and the main objective is to gain as much experience as possible,'' Paddon
said.
