North-East Sport

Wilks is the best of British in Argentina

By Matt Westcott

8:34am Monday 22nd March 2010

GUY Wilks scored the best result by a British driver on Rally Argentina for nine years, after he finished second in his Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000.

Wilks, from Darlington, joins Colin McRae and Richard Burns as the only British drivers to score a podium finish in the country, and the first since 2001.

With Juho Hänninen winning and Jan Kopecký finishing third, it was a fantastic result for Škoda – and its first 1-2-3 finish in international rallying.

The result extends Škoda’s lead at the top of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge manufacturers’ points table to 22 points, while Wilks maintains second in the drivers’ series, just five points behind Hänninen.

Co-driven by Phil Pugh, Wilks set top three stage times throughout the 15 special stage event and was Hänninen’s nearest rival, having moved up to second position on Saturday afternoon.

The 29-year old planned to attack on the opening two stages of Leg 2, but a brake pad ‘knock-off’ problem halfway through the opening La Cumbre – Agua De Oro test cost him time and he completed the stage 2.1 seconds behind Hänninen.

The longest (14 miles / 22.4kms) and highest (1471 metres) stage of the rally followed, but Ascochinga- La Cumbre was strewed with tyre-puncturing rocks and Wilks played it safe and decided to continue to the finish at a fast pace, but without taking any risks.

Rally Argentina came to an exciting finale with a repeat run over the 2.5 mile (4km) superspecial stage in downtown Villa Carlos Paz, which attracted a sell-out 12,000 crowd.

Having also finished second in Brazil, Wilks and the Škoda UK Motorsport team return home having scored 16 points in South America.

“We’ve had a fantastic two rallies in South America and the Škoda UK Motorsport team has done a magnificent job," said Wilks.

“Juho has driven very well in Argentina, and I would like to congratulate him and everyone at Škoda Motorsport for a fantastic rally result. Juho and I both scored 16 points each in Brazil and Argentina, so I can’t be disappointed by finishing second in both, even though we would have seriously loved to have won one of the events.

“We had a push on the opening stage this morning, but a rock pushed the piston in a brake calliper back and for the last four or five kilometres we had brake knock off and a long pedal.

It cleared itself at the end of the stage, but it cost us a handful of seconds, and instead of taking time off Juho as we’d hoped, we dropped two seconds.

“We maintained a controlled fast and safe pace after that to make sure we got the Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000 to the finish. The car has run faultlessly again, and I’m looking forward to fine tuning the set-up and challenging for victory on our next event.”

Round 4 of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge is the Rally Islas Canarias 'Trofeo El Corte Ingles' (28 April-1 May).

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