"It's been a good fight against the GpN cars," said Wilks. "We top out at about 110mph where they have about 125mph to play with so you can see where they make the time especially when there's a straight of 3km on a stage."
Second of the S1600 cars was Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team driver Roman Kresta who suffered from the spectator-friendly 'water features' of the event yet pushed on nevertheless.
"On Saturday's second stage we lost a load of minutes after the water splash and then we had a puncture early in the third stage which lost us time but when the car was running well it felt good," said Kresta. "It is early in the Fiesta's development and we have learnt a lot for the next tarmac round."
Saturday had seen a strong threat from 1996 champion Gwyndaf Evans in the SJR Hankook Mitsubishi Evo IX but the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge points leader coming into this event was to suffer the cruel blow of a rear differential failure after Evans had found the sweet spot of set-up and tyre choice on Saturday morning to set stage fastest times.
"I heard noises going into stage 11 but they weren't enough to cause concern," said Evans. "But all of a sudden the job was finished. That we set the fastest time on three of the stages is really encouraging, but we've lost valuable points."
Evans had been leading the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge, which runs as part of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship in 2006, heading into the event, but that lead gets handed to Evans' SJR Hankook team-mate Stuart Jones who finished fourth in class despite struggling to find a set-up for his Evo IX. Jones now has 21 points to Jonny Milner's 19 for the plum prize of a works Mitsubishi BRC drive in 2007.
The next round of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship is once more on tarmac with the Rally Isle of Man on August 3-5.
