Hayden Paddon is in the box seat to successfully defend his European Rally Championship title this weekend, but first must overcome the unfamiliar Rally Silesia in Poland.
Paddon is joined by long-serving co-driver John Kennard aboard BRC Racing’s Hyundai i20 N Rally2 for the 14-stage all-Tarmac rally, which is making its European Rally Championship debut.
After seven of eight rounds, the reigning champion holds a 27-point advantage over Mathieu Franceschi, with a maximum of 35 points up for grabs this weekend.
“Poland is all about collecting points and that makes me feel more positive where things are at,” said Paddon.
Despite still being in contention, Franceschi concedes landing his first ERC title represents a tough task, but he’s going to give it everything.
“It’s not over for the championship but to be champion a miracle needs to come,” said the Frenchman.
Rally Silesia begins with a 1.85 km Super Special Stage in central Katowice at 7.05 am NZST on Saturday.
A busy Saturday features double runs through the Jastrzębie-Zdrój (17.04 km), Ochaby (10.8 km) and Gmina Jasienica (19.78 km) stages either side of service at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów.
A second Super Special Stage, a 1.5 km run at the Silesian Stadium, brings Saturday’s proceedings to an end.
Sunday’s itinerary features three repeated stages using a mix of new and familiar roads.
The all-new Marklowice Górne stage (11.46 km) is up first from 7.55 pm NZST, followed by the Hażlach test (17.45 km) and the Silesian Voivodship run (11.87 km), which will form the Power Stage when it’s repeated, wrapping up the 2024 European Rally Championship season.
In total, Rally Silesia covers a competitive distance of 180.15km.
Live coverage can be viewed with a paid subscription on rally.tv, or updates followed on the European Rally Championship website.
Header Image: ERC
