STEVE PETCH will be hoping it won't be a case of 'like father, like son' when he takes part in the Wales Rally GB later this week.

Scorton's Petch and co-driver John Richardson from Northallerton will be taking their Hyundai Accent to Cardiff for the event which begins on Thursday.

With any luck they will make it to the end of the rally without any major headaches, which is more than can be said for Stephen Jnr last weekend.

The younger Petch and co-driver Michael Wilkinson were hoping to improve on their sixth place in the Peugeot 206 Super Cup at the Park Systems National Rally.

And while things started well, they soon deteriorated when eight miles into the 15 mile stage two the throttle cable snapped.

The pair demonstrated their ingenuity by using Wilkinson's boot laces as a hand throttle. However, it would not reach Petch so the co-driver ended up in charge of proceedings!

In service they managed to fix the throttle and a damaged suspension arm and then set off on the next three stages. The first two went OK but on stage five, after a heavy landing, a front suspension strut smashed through the bonnet and threw the car into a ditch where it remained stuck for five minutes.

Petch was determined to carry on and after some quick repairs at the next service they managed to make it to the end for a very respectable tenth place finish in the Super Cup and 26th overall.

Father Steve, whose SGP Motorsport company prepares the car, said others may have given up faced with the same predicament.

"He's got determination," he said. "Many a person would have given up and said 'let's go home we have got no chance of finishing, we've lost that much time'. But he's got the fortitude to keep on going and I have got to admire him for that."

Petch snr has not raced the Accent many times this year as it has been in the hands of David Higgins in the British Rally Championship.

"The car has spent its time supporting David and it has proved itself very, very good in that," he said. "Basically, John and I have had a year off. We have only probably done half the events we normally would have done to make way for David to hopefully win the BRC."

Despite their lack of race action this year Petch believes they should be in the mix in their class this weekend.

"We are optimistic we have got it right enough to enable us to do the event and finish it," he said. "Where we have competed this year we have done reasonably well. I wouldn't like to predict where we will finish but we should be fairly competitive in our group."

l Darlington rally driver Guy Wilks will be able to get in some practise in his own front room after signing a sponsorship deal with Sony to plug their latest World Rally Championship game.

Suzuki Ignis driver Wilks has been signed up by Sony Computer Entertainment for this week's Wales Rally of Great Britain after the company singled him out as someone who could go on to make a name for himself on the world stage.

With a lack of British drivers competing at a senior level in the FIA World Rally Championship, SCE UK will be supporting Wilks in Cardiff. The 23-year-old is currently in third position in the 2004 FIA Junior World Rally Championship.

The news comes as Sony Computer Entertainment prepares to launch the only officially licensed FIA World Rally Championship game for PlayStation 2, WRC4.

Wilks took up the challenge to become one of the first drivers to play WRC4 and it gave him a welcome reminder of the tricky conditions he will soon be facing in Wales.

"With Richard (Burns) and Colin (McRae) not competing in Wales this year, I will be trying my best to put in a performance to give the British fans something to cheer about," he said.

"You always get an amazing buzz when competing in front of such a passionate home crowd.''