MOTORSPORT: Aussie's WRC cameo, Kiwi full-time

Australia’s brightest rally prospect is back on the world stage – albeit only in a one-off outing, in the quest for another next year – while New Zealand’s rally star is already locked in full-time with a factory drive for the next three years.

As Eli Evans (Citroen DS3) and Molly Taylor (Renault Clio) fight out the Australian Rally Championship in South Australia this weekend, 27-year-old Victorian Brendan Reeves and his co-driver sister Rhiannon Gelsomino will compete at Rally Spain, the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship.

They will be in the same Ford Fiesta R2 in which they won the New England Forest Rally’s two-wheel-drive class in July, giving British-based Ford rallying operation M-Sport success on the American competition debut of that model with its 1-litre turbocharged EcoBoost engine.

The Spanish event starts tomorrow in the Montjuic precinct of Barcelona that decades ago hosted Formula 1 and later the 1992 Olympics.

Reeves and Gelsomino will compete in the Fiesta Trophy that is run in conjunction with WRC events.

The prize for the winner of the five-round trophy is a full seven-round season of WRC2 next year, while the Australian siblings are hoping to secure a nomination for an end-of-season shootout that could earn them another outing in a WRC event next year in a Fiesta R5.

The shootout is called the Vatanen Touch, named in honour of legendary Finn Ari Vatanen – the 1981 world champion, a four-time Dakar winner and much loved in Australia, particularly for his drive in the 1980 Rally of Canberra.

Reeves and Gelsomino were regular competitors in the WRC Academy – now called the Junior WRC – in 2011 and ’12 but have not competed in Europe since, although they won Rally America’s 2WD series in 2013 with five victories from five starts.

Their return to Europe comes with the support of 93 individuals and businesses.
Meanwhile, 28-year-old New Zealander Hayden Paddon this week was confirmed as a Hyundai factory driver in the WRC for the next three years.

Australia’s best-performed driver in the WRC, Chris Atkinson, had been part of the Hyundai test and development squad in 2013 before the Korean manufacturer preferred Paddon for one of its WRC i20s. He did six rallies with it last year and is doing 12 of the 13 in this year’s championship.

As Hyundai stages a nail-biting battle with Citroen for second place behind Volkswagen in this season’s manufacturers’ championship, Paddon has been promoted into its ‘A team’ for the final round in Wales next month while out-of-form Belgian Thierry Neuville has been relegated to its ‘B team’.

Paddon already has notched five top-five finishes in the WRC, including at Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour last month. He was second to VW’s now-triple world champion Sebastien Ogier at the Italian event earlier in the championship.   

The Kiwi said his two seasons with Hyundai – with his vastly-experienced countryman John Kennard as his co-driver – had been “an amazing journey”.

“We have grown a lot,” Paddon said.

“The team has helped me to develop and, based on the rate that we have progressed together, I have no doubt we will be winning soon.

“We are all working and striving towards becoming world champions.

“Hyundai Motorsport will offer me the best opportunity to achieve that goal.”

Hyundai team principal Michel Nandan said Paddon “has proven to be a worthy addition to our young team”.

“He is consistent, quick and determined, with even more potential for growth,” Nandan said.

“From the start of our WRC program we have wanted to support fresh, young talent and Hayden has shown just how successful this can be.”

Atkinson, who was a member of Subaru’s Prodrive-run factory rally team until it folded at the end of the 2008 season, in which he achieved two second places in WRC events, turns 36 next month.

The Queenslander now mainly rallies in China – he won that country’s Longyou Rally in VW Golf 7 against a field of 110 a year ago and is competing there again on October 31-November 1 in what is the final round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.

He also has thoughts of competing in rallycross.

Meanwhile, this weekend’s Rally Spain starts on gravel before switching to tarmac. It includes seven new stages, but there are three that Reeves and Gelsomino will be familiar with from 2012.

“I can’t wait to get started and experience the WRC again,” Reeves said.

“It’s been three years since my last event in Europe, so I’m really buzzing to be part of the Fiesta Trophy.

“Although the mixed surfaces will make it difficult, it will also level the field as most drivers prefer one surface over the other.

“I’ve never raced against these drivers before, but I know there is strong talent in there so hopefully I will be contesting for some stage wins.”

Norwegian Marius Aasen is leading the Fiesta Trophy, five points ahead of Ari Vatanen’s 25-year-old son Max.