Kiwi world production car rally champions Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have finished Rally Sweden - Paddon's first event on snow - with a solid fourth place in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship field.
Paddon, 24, was pleased to have finished the first event of his SWRC season.
"It's been three days of flat-out rallying on snow and ice-covered roads. Fourth is not a bad result, all things considered, and gives us good points on the board to start our season,'' said Paddon, who now lives in Montgat, Spain.
"Sunday's six stages went smoothly without any dramas. Between each stage we continued to try new things with the car's set-up which continued our learning process about how to get the best from the Skoda.
"We've still been struggling to find what exactly works with the car on this surface but we have learnt a lot about both the car and the rally this weekend.''
Paddon, who has two New Zealand rally championship titles to his credit as well as winning the FIA Production World Rally Championship in 2011, says fourth place wasn't what he was aiming for.
"But there are still a lot of positives to take from the weekend. I'm now very determined that once we get back to our favoured surface of gravel for our next event in Portugal that we'll have a different and more competitive package which will involve a lot of hard work and homework over the next five weeks.''
- APNZ
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