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Wednesday January 23, 2013
The Sun
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Hobby became John’s job Marlborough vineyard owner John Kennard is a well known figure in rallying and spends much of his year competing in exotic locations around the world. Sun reporter Chris Tobin caught up with him. The tranquillity of a vineyard is a long way from the high speed, nerve tingling action of rallying around the world but it suits John Kennard. The soon to turn 54-yearold lives with his partner Satu on the outskirts of Blenheim running his own vineyard Vicarage Lane Wines and managing several vineyard blocks on behalf of friends. John is well known as the co-driver for Hayden Paddon, the rising young international rallying star. The pair won New Zealand rally championships in 2008 and 2009 and in 2011 took out the Production World Rally Championship. Last year they won the Rally of New Zealand and contested the Super 2000 World Rally Championship (SWRC), a feeder class to the top tier World Rally Championship. “It was an up and down year after we started very well leading the championship after three rounds,” John says of that campaign which cost $1 million. They are now raising sponsorship money for another campaign this year. “We’re trying really hard to put together a budget. “The latest we can enter the championship is later in the year. “April is the aim and we’ll pick six or seven events we’ll do. “You can choose six rounds of the 13 round championship. “Where Hayden’s won both times, Portugal, is a good place to start. “Guys with the money will go to Mexico where there’s less strong opposition. “Finland late in the year is a lot stronger competition.
“Hopefully we’ll be out there this year. “We’ve got 20 percent of the budget but raising $1 million in New Zealand is not the easiest thing.” John says Hayden has wanted to be the world champion since the age of six. For him, however, rallying is a hobby that turned into a job. When he started out it was motorbikes and motocross but after breaking his knees in a crash, he moved to four-wheelers and began rallying in 1979. “I realized I didn’t have the money or talent to rally at the level I’d like.” During a trip to Europe he ended up in a world championship event in Finland which whetted his appetite for the sport. On a later return to Europe he became involved in the management side of shifting rallying teams around the world, working for Mitsubishi and then Subaru. “It was one of those ‘who you know.’ “I knew how the rally ran when working in the national rally here; you had to organise mechanics around the country and all the rest, so it was turning that into a job on a bigger scale “The first event I did with Mitsubishi was in Kenya. It was open road rallying instead of here where the roads are closed. So you’d be in helicopters in front of the cars. It was really exciting stuff.” From 1995 to 2000 he was team co-ordinator for Subaru working with the team manager. He had to solve some ticklish problems on occasion. “Colin McRae was caught speeding in a tunnel in Italy once and he lost his licence, my job
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became working with the Italian co-driver and lawyer to get Colin’s licence back.” That was easier said than done in Italy. McRae needed the licence to compete. After a tortuous process John ended up handing the licence through the compound fence to the co-driver just before the rally roared off. “Dealing with the Italian legal system wasn’t easy and it wasn’t easy in Kenya either. You had to pay money to get things done, easing the wheels really.” From Subaru, John went to work for Prodriver, again on the logistics side of things. Then in 2002 Mitsubishi wanted to enter the American rallying championship and secured John’s services but that ended after a hugely successful year when the company announced they had achieved all that they wanted. It was then John and Satu bought their Marlborough vineyard. After that Hayden Paddon and his father came calling. John says although the sport can be gruelling there’s a glamorous side to rallying. In Europe the top drivers are virtual household names. “Sebastien Loeb is the best known sportsman in France and even at the level below in Portugal and Argentina they know who the drivers are; they all know who Hayden is. “They’ll be chanting ‘Paddon’, ‘Paddon’ when we come in. “They’re looking for the driver. I keep my head down.” There is quite an age difference (28 years) between the two and their relationship has been
likened to that between The Karate Kid and Mr Miyagi. “We’re different people but we seem to get on and we’re quite similar having a thirst for knowledge and wanting to make things happen” says John.
John Kennard with the impressive display of trophies he has won in car rallies around the world. “As long as Hayden is happy, I’m there.” And of course away from the high octane world of rallying there’s John and Satu’s quieter times back in Marlborough. Through contacts, they market their wine in Satu’s home country, Finland. “When we first got into it 50 percent of the wine was going into Finland but the big guys have gone out and looked for niche markets, so we’re doing 28,000 to 30,000 bottles a year there now, Savvy and Pinot.”
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John Kennard and Hayden Paddon going full out in France. Photo: Honza Fronek
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