Just days after winning Rally Barbados, Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard head to Latvia for Round 4 of the European Rally Championship, seeking to extend their championship lead at Tet Rally Liepāja this weekend.
Driving BRC Racing Team’s Hyundai i20 N Rally2 Car, the Kiwi duo will be busy with 183.89km of gravel running over two days. Saturday brings 106.81 km over six special stages, with Sunday seeing four more special stages for an additional 77.08 km.
Two runs over the 27.56 km Tukums launch the event into action at 8.00 pm (NZ Time) on Saturday, followed by SS3 on Talsi (8.5 km), SS4 on Ivande (26.02 km) and SS5 on Snepele (14.63 km)
SSS6, a 2.54 km run on the Liepaja City Stage, will provide a unique challenge as an urban test over public and parkland roads on Saturday night local time. A dedicated donut zone, a purpose-built jump and two long straights set the scene for what’s expected to be an enormous fan turnout.
Sunday’s action begins at 5.55 pm (NZ Time) with the 19.59 km SS7 at Liepieni, followed by the 18.95 km Krogzemji SS8. A further pass on each of those stages concludes the rally.
Paddon has strong competition lined up alongside for the round, including Latvian local and Rally Poland winner Mārtiṇš Sesks, defending ERC champion Efrén Llarena, French gravel champion Mathieu Franceschi and WRC event winner Mads Østberg.
Sesks and Østberg currently sit joint second in the ERC standings, 37 points behind Paddon after three of seven events. Østberg, however, has already used his drop round and henceforth completed one less event.
Tet Rally Liepāja can be viewed live with a paid subscription on WRC+, while live updates can be found on the ERC website.
Header Image: European Rally Championship.
