Well its that time again – time to saddle up and get back into rally mode and what better way with one of the most exhilarating and historic events, Rally Finland. After our first two events of the year being new to us, it is nice to return to a rally that we know well (haven done it 4 times previously) and on roads that I enjoy. Finland is quite a unique rally and is famous for its fast roads with many blind crests and jumps.

It was great spending a couple of weeks in NZ since Poland, working with our NZ partners and catching up with lots of people. However, it is also good to now be back in Europe and back behind the wheel again. Although, its only been 4 weeks since Poland, it has felt like along time. The warm summer days here in Europe are also a little more enticing than the bitter cold frosts at home at the moment :)

Our Rally Finland got under way yesterday with testing, which was our chance to finalise our set-up for the event. We made some really good gains with the set-up which combined with some changes that I am trying to make to my driving style – felt really good. So the confidence is high heading into this rally and following the progress we showed in Poland I believe we can pick up where we left off from and continue to get closer to the leading group.

Recce has now started and while we have notes for 2/3 of the stages which we have done over the past few years, there are also a couple of new stages this year to keep us honest. But this is a drivers rally, and whether the stage is new or not, the character of the roads are the same and they are a heck of a lot of fun to drive!!!

You can check out our event preview video here:

www.youtube.com

Also there is a small clip and photos from yesterdays test on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/haydenpaddonwrc

The rally gets under way this Thursday afternoon (Friday morning NZ time) before finishing back in the host city of Jyväskylä on Sunday afternoon. You can keep up to date with our progress on our Facebook & Twitter pages, and live results/news/radio will stream throughout the event on www.wrc.com.

Thanks for your support and look forward to keeping you posted. Bring on Rally Finland!!