The pair are lining up for the sixth round of the FIA European Rally Championship, the Barum Czech Rally Zlin.
Paddon leads the drivers’ championship but his lead is a modest seven points over French driver Mathieu Franceschi.
There are just two rounds after the Czech rally, so the Cromwell-based driver is staying focused on the ultimate goal of winning his second ERC title.
It is the second time Paddon and Kennard have contested the unique tarmac rally, which Paddon describes as one of the trickier ERC events.
"It is hugely dependant on weather as to what we will face on the rally," he said.
"Yes, it’s a tarmac rally, but it’s often bumpy, dirty tarmac, so in places it’s more like tackling a gravel stage than tarmac. To be fast on such a rally, you need to be confident."
While the New Zealand pair sealed their first ERC title at this point last year thanks to strong results in the first six rallies, the Czech event led to their only DNF result of the season, so Paddon is looking for a stronger finish this year.
"We didn’t have the end here last year that we wanted, but the experience gained will help us a lot for this year to be better prepared for what is a very unique event.
"Again we know many locals will be fast but, at this point of the championship, our sole focus is on Franchesci as our main title rival. We can’t control what he does, so will be doing the best job we can and making sure we can get the right feeling with the car in testing before the event."
The pair line up in the BRC Racing-prepared Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car in a strong field to tackle 15 special stages, comprising 201.79 competitive kilometres.
Rally Zlin is based in the South Moravian university city, 300km south of Czech capital Prague.
It is a tarmac test like no other due to the bumpy and sometimes broken nature of the road surface. To add to the challenge, several stages feature high-speed blasts through forests and intermittent showers are always possible.
While the weather might be hard to predict, huge numbers of fans follow the action, especially on the opening night-time Zlin superspecial stage.
