Lake Hawea journalist Catherine Pattison has known racing driver Hayden Paddon since the very early days of his career, so it’s entirely fitting that he should choose her to ghost write his autobiography.

The first time Catherine wrote about Hayden, he was a little-known 18-year-old from Geraldine and she was just starting out on her career in motoring journalism. 

“I went to my sports editor and said I wanted to write about this young driver,” she said. “He was less than keen but said I could write something as long as I kept it brief.”

Catherine wrote the story and Hayden went on to win the New Zealand Rally Championship for the first time in 2008. Since then she has followed his career closely, writing about him many times and even handling his media enquiries for a couple of years in 2007 and 2008. 

Hayden asked Catherine to ghost write his autobiography just before Christmas last year and the pair were advised by publishers Penguin Random House to get the book on the shelves for Fathers’ Day 2019.

Catherine said the process of writing the autobiography, entitled “Driven”, had been both a huge opportunity and a steep learning curve. After five months of solid work, the book is now at the proofreading stage.

Hayden (whose parents live in Wanaka) is managed by Wanaka motorsport PR specialist Kate Gordon-Smith.

For anyone wanting to know more about the book, the Penguin website has this to say: “In Driven, Paddon details the many highs and lows along the road to the top. He opens up about his struggles with bullying, depression and loss as a young man, and goes on public record for the first time about the 2017 accident in which a spectator was killed and his controversial dismissing from the Hyundai Motorsport team in 2018.”

The autobiography’s launch is set for August 2019.

PHOTO: Vaughan Brookfield