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President’s High Performance Scholarship for Paddon

Rally driver Hayden Paddon and his co-driver John Kennard, along with racing driver Richie Stanaway, have had a stellar 12 months capped off by being awarded the inaugural MotorSport New Zealand President’s High Performance Scholarships.

Announcing the awards, MotorSport New Zealand President Shayne Harris said the new scholarships have been introduced to help provide off-track support for competitors who are competing in one or more major International motorsport competitions.

“The funding from these scholarships will help with some of the many off track expenses like trainers, professional mentors and similar support required by competitors at the international level," said Harris.

Paddon and Kennard laid down the gauntlet in the international rally scene finishing third in the Production World Rally Championship in their rookie year after winning the Pirelli Star Driver scholarship. Regretfully a clash of dates prevented Paddon’s involvement with the FIA Institute programme.

Stanaway won the German ADAC Formula Master Championship last year and then went on to be selected for the FIA Institute’s Young Driver Excellence Academy that will train just twelve of the world’s leading young race and rally drivers over the next twelve months.

“Both drivers are graduates from the Elite Motorsport Academy held annually in New Zealand which helped prepare them for the rigours of international competition,” Harris said.

“They are just two of several Academy graduates who are performing with distinction overseas and that success is being noted in many parts of the sport.”

Like the Academy, the President’s High Performance Scholarships are administered by the MotorSport New Zealand Scholarship Trust, which receives funding support from SPARC, MotorSport New Zealand, Rally New Zealand and other sponsors.

This year’s scholarship winners were selected by the Trustees to launch this new scholarship however in future all graduates from the Elite Motorsport Academy will be eligible to apply. To date 64 competitors have been through the testing academy programme.