Now it is only 6 days until we are on the big bird and on our way to Australia. The last week since the car left has been some what quieter and has given us a chance to catch up with other things – including working on our 2012 plans.

For those of you in the Timaru area, we are having a small casual presentation to discuss our season to date, potential plans for 2012 and further information of how you can become a shareholder as part of HPRG. You or anyone that you know that may be interested are welcome to come along. It is at 7pm this Thursday at Autoworld Timaru, opposite BP Showgrounds on SH1.

Foto: haydenpaddon.com

We are also privileged to welcome Mike Hall-Taylor from HTC Sportsworld as part of our team. Mike who currently does a lot of work for Emirates Team New Zealand and in the past with the Jordan Formula 1 team is helping us to secure the funds to continue in the WRC as we look at stepping up. We still have a lot of budget to find but we are all working hard.

We also welcome new team partner, Milwaukee Power Tools to our team. Milwaukee have a wide range of the most powerful, versatile market leading power tools that can be seen at your nearest Placemakers branch. Our team are now also equipped with Milwaukee tools which I´m sure will make their jobs easier.

Really looking forward to Rally Australia and a chance to wrap up the Production World Rally Championship. It will not be easy however as there will be a lot of fast competition, particularly from the locals, but I feel we are up for the challenge and will certainly be pushing hard – particularly with our large tour/supporters group cheering us on. I will keep you posted next week during our build up to the rally, starting with testing next Monday.