The championship starts in Fafe, northern Portugal, tonight.
The rally, ERC Rally Serras de Fafe e Felgueiras, has 17 special stages totalling 180.29km, mainly on gravel roads but with some asphalt sections.
Paddon and Kennard are working with Italian team BRC to contest seven of the eight ERC rallies and personnel from Paddon’s Hyundai New Zealand Rally team are working alongside BRC to prepare and run the car.
The pair had their first drive of a new-to-them Hyundai i20 N Rally 2 car on Wednesday in conditions Paddon describes as wet and muddy.
"While there wasn’t much we could conclude from the very wet and muddy conditions for our test, the car feels like our New Zealand one and it’s been great to get to know everyone from BRC," Paddon said.
"We’re expecting similar conditions for the rally so it may be more of a matter of survival to get to the finish."
They were getting a chance to see the stages during reconnaissance overnight.
The qualifying stage for FIA and ERC1 priority drivers will then determine the order in which drivers can choose their road position for tomorrow’s start list.
The rally officially gets under way with a 1.43km super special stage in central Fafe.
Tomorrow’s eight stages include two runs over a loop of four stages, and Sunday’s schedule also has two runs over a set of four stages, including the 14.9km Lameirinha stage with its well-known Pedra Sentada jump, which has been part of European rallying folklore for decades.
Paddon is seeded No2 on the entry list, behind Spaniard Efren Llarena, who won the 2022 FIA ERC title and was runner-up to Andreas Mikkelsen in 2021.
No3 on the Fafe entry list is another former WRC driver, Craig Breen, in a Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car similar to Paddon’s.
