Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins will no doubt be feeling a little more comfortable sitting in his reclining, swivelling office chair this morning — far safer than the one he sat in on Saturday when he rode with Kiwi rally star Hayden Paddon at the wheel.
Dunedin’s non-driving, hitch-hiking mayor got to ride in Paddon’s new experimental electric-powered rally car during an exhibition circuit at the tarmac super stage of the Otago Rally.
While a ride in a rally car is a white-knuckle experience for most people, it was petrifying for Mr Hawkins because he has had first-hand experience of what can happen when things go wrong in a car.
He was injured in a serious car accident in 2016 — an incident which still plays heavily on his mind to this day.
"It was Queen’s Birthday weekend and we hit black ice while going full speed on the open road. The car rolled a couple of times and then we slammed into a power pole. My wife was driving and our 3-month-old son was in the back."
He said he had to be cut out of the car, and was thankful that he was the only one in the vehicle to receive major injuries.
"I broke my arm. The point of impact with the pole was my elbow, roughly. But it could have been far worse than what it was. It’s certainly something I think about a lot. It’s made me more anxious as a passenger. You don’t forget that in a hurry."
He said the prospect of going "very fast and sideways and around in circles" was not appealing, and he only did it because he was being driven by one of the best rally car drivers in the world.
After the ride, he said it was strangely reassuring. It had made him feel a little more comfortable in a car.
"It wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it was going to be. I had a good driver, good conditions — and there was no ice on the track. My jaw relaxed over time. It would have been different if he was on one of the gravel road challenges with trees rushing past either side of the car. I probably would have been less enthusiastic about that, to be honest."
While he had no ambition to get behind the wheel of a rally car, he said the experience had made him think more seriously about driving the family car again.
"It was certainly far more fun than I thought it would be."
Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard won the Otago Rally by 7 minutes and 32.9 seconds.
- John Lewis
