Britain's
Matthew Wilson finished off his 2006 season on a high on Saturday when he took his
Stobart VK-backed Ford Focus WRC car to the win on the Grizedale Stages Rally.
Wilson Jr dominated the event in his 2006-spec Ford Focus, the same car as he had driven on the Wales Rally GB the previous weekend, the final round in the 2006
FIA World Rally Championship, and he won all six stages.
"It was a great event and it's good to end the season with a trophy," he told the teams official website. "I was amazed with how much we were leading by after the first two stages so after that we just cruised it round."
With the car having contested one of the world's most gruelling rallies the weekend before, and put through use in the week, it didn't start the event in quite the same fashion that it would a WRC event though: "It was certainly eventful as we had no dash, no centre diff and no paddle shift as the car had been used on Wales Rally GB then on three drive days in the week," he explained. "It's definitely ready for a rebuild now!"
The event was a special one too for the Englishman, as he was re-united with his old co-driver, Scott Martin. Michael Orr partnered Wilson this season in the WRC.
"It was fantastic to be back in the car with Matt," said Martin, who co-drove with Barry Clark this season to take the FIA Junior WRC Rookie title. "Grizedale is a pretty difficult event for any co-driver as it's corner after corner and I jumped from a GpN Fiesta ST into the Focus WRC, but everything worked so well. We did have hydraulic problems which meant Matt had to shift gear manually, but even then we were going quicker than everyone else. It was the perfect way to end the year."
Wilson meanwhile is now looking forward to 2007 and putting the experience he gained in his rookie year to good use: "There are only two events next year that I haven't done before, Norway and Portugal. And there's even the novelty of going to Ireland where I'll be the one with experience compared to most of the drivers which makes a refreshing change. I can't wait," he concluded.
