by Geoff Mayes


On a weekend of attrition Guy Wilks put in a polished performance to take a dominant victory on the Pirelli International Rally, winning all but three of the stages on his way to his first ever International win.

Wilks, who some saw as a surprise signing for the second works Mitsubishi seat alongside 2006 Evo Challenge winner and former British champion Gwyndaf Evans, proved his doubters wrong by winning all four of the Friday night stages, edging out a 28 second lead over his team-mate, and closest rival, Welshman Evans.

Current Evo Challenge leader Phil Morrow was on the pace initially but would damage his sump on the third stage and was one of the first high profile retirements of the event. This left 2006 Pirelli International Rally winner Ryan Champion in third overall. Mark Higgins was down in fourth but confused as to why he was off the pace.

Day 2 began exactly where leg 1 had ended, with Wilks at the top of the leader-board, but Mark Higgins was only 0.6 second slower. Guy, who is also contesting six events in the WRC in a privately entered Ford Focus WRC, won the next two stages as well, returning to service with almost 40 seconds in hand over his team-mate, with Higgins now ahead of Champion.

Stage 9 saw a new name top the time sheets when Higgins went 2 seconds faster than Wilks who had lost third gear. On Stage 10 Gwyndaf topped the times but Wilks was only 2 seconds further back, and still held a 40 second cushion over his team-mate. The works Mitsubishi team changed the gearbox in record time at the final service and Wilks headed back out for the final 4 stages with just over a half minute advantage. By the end of the stage Wilks had extended his lead to over a minute as Gwyndafs' rally came to a halt with broken transmission. Winning all of the last four stages meant that Wilks returned to Carlisle with a final winning margin of 1 minute 13.9 seconds over the defending champion with Ryan Vhampion third.

In the other classes 2006 British Junior Champion Conrad Rautenbach scored a dominant victory in the S1600 class, winning every single stage, despite struggling with engine problems on Friday night, and finished fifth overall as well.

Class R2 was initially dominated by Vessa Mikkola. The son of former British and World Rally champion Hannu, Vessa had opened up a huge lead when he suffered suspension problems and dropped back. This allowed James Wozencroft into the lead before he too ran into problems. Going into the last loop of stages it was fellow Suzuki Swift driver Lorna Smith leading the class but she was being hunted down by Citroen C2R2 driver Jamie Hickman, who entered the last stage leading the class - only for his engine to let go 4 miles from the end of the rally. 18 year old Jason Pritchard upheld Citroen honours by finishing second in the class behind Smith, who also took the Ladies Award.

In the 'Stars' category for 1400cc cars Richard Sykes led initially before clutch problems slowed his Peugeot. Then Mark Gamble had a big moment over a jump and damaged his power steering and radiator. This coupled with fuel pressure problems throughout the event dropped him a load of time and allowed Mike Harris Jr, also in a Citroen C2, to cruise to the victory ahead of Matt Cotton in an MG.

Round two, the Jim Clark International is only 4 weeks away, with the start taking place on Friday May 25 from Kelso.