It never ceases to amaze me the amount of risk people are willing to take to get close to the action for these races…

Hayden Paddon will continue to race in Rally Argentina despite crashing into and injuring six spectators on stage nine. The crash was 600-metres into the stage on Saturday (NZT Sunday) and happened when the New Zealand driver lost control of his Hyundai i20 in a jump on the exit of a curve. The car landed on two wheels close to the edge of the road and collided with spectators who had disobeyed race regulations that did not permit them to watch the race from the spot where the accident occurred, Cordoba newspaper La Voz del Interior said. Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard are reportedly uninjured after crashing into spectators on Rally Argentina stage nine. The race stage was stopped, and then cancelled, as ambulances rushed the injured spectators to hospital. The local sports daily Ole reported one fan suffered a broken leg, while Paddon’s Hyundai team said none of the injuries were thought to be life-threatening. Paddon and co-driver John Kennard were uninjured in the crash and the Geraldine driver said he would rejoin for the final day to attempt to rebuild his confidence.

“There’s a lot of spectators here at Argentina and at times they can be quite close to the road,” Paddon said. “Unfortunately this time we hit them. It wasn’t a nice incident … but our best wishes go out to everyone who was involved.”

Paddon has had a rough start to the season after his career-best fifth-placed finish in the snowy Rally of Sweden. He crashed after hitting a rock on the second day of the Rally of Mexico and suffered mechanical problems that forced him to retire on day two of the notoriously rough roads in Argentina.Out of contention for Rally Argentina, Paddon was using the ninth stage as a learning experience and had been pleased with his morning runs, finishing fifth and sixth fastest on the El Condor stages.

“The accident that caused it wasn’t big at all but obviously the consequences weren’t so great,” Paddon said.

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