Hayden Paddon returned to TitansRX at the MJP Arena last weekend, marking his first starts in the series since the season-opening rounds in France.
The New Zealander sat out of the races in the UK and Portugal due to rallying commitments but came back for the series‘ home event in Austria and, as was the case in Essay, was immediately was on the pace.
Paddon claimed his first podium finish of the season after a clean run in what was only his third-ever rallycross start in round seven on Saturday. Sunday however was a different story, with contact in Q3 and the semi-final derailing Paddon’s hopes of back-to-back podiums.
„This was just a relaxing weekend for me,“ Paddon said. „It would’ve been nice to do better on Sunday but unfortunately we got taken out on the first corner in Q3 and the semi so I didn’t done a lot of on Sunday, but that’s the way it is.“
„I just tried to stay out of trouble on Saturday and we tried to do the same on Sunday but I got picked on a little bit more,“ he added. „It was just about being clean on Saturday, I enjoy driving the car and everything, I certainly could’ve gone quicker but it was about trying to stay out of trouble too.“
Paddon has already confirmed that he will sit out of the next rounds of the 2019 TitansRX season at Nyirad in Hungary while he competes in Wales Rally GB, but he is keen to make a return to the series either for the season finale at the Estering in Germany or in 2020.
„I’ve got a couple of WRC commitments in October, some testing in the rally car, so we’ll have to see what we can do,“ he said when asked about the possibility of another 2019 outing. „I really enjoy this, these cars are actually quite easy to drive so you just get in and do the job. Hopefully we can come back, whether it’s this year or next year and try and improve.“
„I’ve only done done four races but I enjoy the concept, for me it’s just relaxing, there’s no pressure here, I just come and enjoy it,“ he continued. „[There’s] a lot of good people, like-minded people in the paddock that enjoy it, the cars are all even so it just comes down to the driving side of it.“
