GUY Wilks was looking on the positive side after an eventful Rally of New Zealand, writes Matt Westcott.

The Darlington driver, who is currently leading the Junior World Rally Championship standings after two rounds, took his Suzuki Ignis to the Antipodes purely for experience as the event does not form part of the global series.

Wilks, 24, won the first five stages in his class before going off the road on Saturday's Special Stage 14, the longest of the rally.

The result was damaged suspension and Wilks was forced to miss the two spectator special stages at Manukau that night. Consequently he picked up a ten-minute penalty, and although allowed to re-enter the rally the following day he had lost too much ground to be a threat to the top ten and had to settle for finishing second in class.

"It was a pity that we went off and did not finish higher up the order," he said. "But that was not really the point in coming here.

"Our mission was to gain experience and, as we only missed the two short super-special stages, we achieved what we set out to do."

The knowledge picked up could prove invaluable for Wilks, tipped as the next big thing in British rallying.

"I knew nothing about New Zealand until I came here," he said. "But now I have more information about the sort of pace that is required and the amount of grip to expect from the surfaces.

"It's a fantastic rally to drive and our Suzuki Ignis was great. It's been an extremely valuable learning process for all of us."

Wilks, and team-mate P-G Andersson, are back in action for round three of the JWRC when they contest the all-gravel Rally d'Italia-Sardinia from April 29.

Published: 11/04/2005