Young Kiwi rally drivers Hayden Paddon and Brad Ayling are one step closer towards winning a rally career-changing opportunity with the Pirelli star driver competition.

The Pirelli-backed ‘star driver' scheme offers the eventual winners the chance to contest six World Rally Championship events the following season.

The worldwide search for five young rally drivers from the 2008 and 2009 FIA regional rally championships will see one driver from the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and two from the European region offered the chance to contest identical Group N or Super 2000 cars in the WRC. The cars will be supplied and serviced under an FIA contract with a specialist preparation company and competitors must be under the age of 27 on 1 January in the year of the regional rally championship.

The NAC Insurance Hella International Rally Whangarei was the first qualifying event for the Asia Pacific region and 21-year-old Paddon and 26-year-old Ayling were joined by six other young Kiwi drivers and one young Australian during the two-day rally.

Ayling was a late entrant, not confirming his nomination for the Pirelli competition until just before the rally, which ran over the weekend of 7 and 8 June in Whangarei.

Paddon, on the other hand, was widely regarded as one of the favourites, along with Mark Tapper, to earn the points required to win this first stage of the competition. Drivers were awarded points based on their placing relative to other Pirelli entrants for each of the rally's 15 stages; three for first, two for second and one for third.

By scoring the most Pirelli star driver points, Paddon and Ayling have now won €5000 (approx. NZ$9600) towards the costs of competing in what is essentially the Asia Pacific Pirelli finale, Rally Malaysia, in October this year.

The full list of entrants for the first 2008 Asia Pacific Pirelli star driver qualifying rally (Rally Whangarei) was:

§ Andre Meier, age 19, Cambridge

§ Ben Jagger, age 18, Whangarei

§ Brad Ayling, age 26, Inglewood

§ Brendan Reeves, age 20, Wedderburn, Victoria, Australia

§ Hayden Paddon, age 21, Geraldine

§ Kirsty Nelson, age 18, Whangarei

§ Mark Tapper, age 27, Auckland

§ Patrick Malley, age 24, Auckland

§ Sloan Cox, age 16, Rotorua

Last year's outright winner in Whangarei, Paddon said he was focused on his relative position in the Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) rather than the Pirelli competition during the event. He finished second outright and moved into the lead on the points' table, while also scoring maximum Pirelli points in 13 of the 15 stages.

"Now I've got this opportunity to go to Malaysia, everything we do from this point forward will be building up to that," said Paddon, who changed to a left-hand-drive Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX this year and is clearly increasingly comfortable with the new car every time he runs it.

Ayling, whose father Dave Ayling won the national championship in 1990, is now driving the Subaru Impreza contested by former New Zealand rally champion Richard Mason. The 26-year-old said he didn't think he was in with a serious chance in the Pirelli competition but entered "... because you never know what can happen in this sport. After we got the car's handling sorted on Saturday, we felt we were in with a chance on Sunday."

Ayling had five Pirelli points from Saturday's eight stages. With Paddon on 22, Tapper on 11 and Sloan Cox on seven, Ayling was in the right place to take the points on offer after Tapper's rally ended late on Saturday after damage to his Mitsubishi's oil cooler and Cox went off during Sunday's action.

"We stuck with it and will definitely go to Malaysia. It's been tough year so far so we'll focus on this," Ayling said.

Paddon's goal is to win the Asia Pacific Pirelli star driver title in Malaysia, but he doesn't underestimate the challenge in front of him.

"The competition is going to be very tough; half the challenge is to complete the rally," said Paddon, who has competed outside New Zealand just once, in the UK, which he acknowledges is nothing like the plantation roads and heat of Malaysia. He is considering plans to contest one other event in Malaysia prior to the main Malaysian Rally on 11-12 October. "We're going all out to win this."

Amongst the other contenders in the inaugural Pirelli star driver qualifying round, Tapper was out with irreparable mechanical damage, although the Auckland driver says he's going to Rally Malaysia anyway.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, literally," said Tapper, who turned 27 just five weeks after the qualifying cut-off.

Andre Meier battled with Sloan Cox and Kirsty Nelson throughout the weekend, working hard to finish second fastest three times. Cox, only 16 years old and impressing many with his professional demeanour, scored Pirelli points in six of the first day's stages but was out on Sunday having gone off-road. Nelson crashed out on Saturday and, despite re-joining on Sunday, lost too many opportunities for points. Patrick Malley was the only Pirelli contender to earn points in a two-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta. In a similar car, Ben Jagger acknowledged the chance of doing well in the competition wasn't strong against all the drivers in turbo-charged four-wheel-drive cars. "But we were just happy to be involved," said the Northland teenager.

The only Australian to have travelled to the Whangarei qualifying event, Brendan Reeves, suffered a technical issue with his leased Ford Fiesta which contributed to him being unable to score points in the Pirelli competition. However the very professional young Australian was enthusiastic about the Northland and Kaipara District roads and the whole experience of contesting his first event outside Australia.

Pirelli star driver points for Pacific qualifying round (Rally Whangarei)

1, Hayden Paddon, 43

2, Brad Ayling, 15

3, Mark Tapper, 11

4, Andre Meier, 8

5, Sloan Cox, 7

6, Kirsty Nelson, 6

7, Patrick Malley, 1

8, Brendon Reeves, 0

9, Ben Jagger, 0