AFTER securing his maiden victory in the Junior World Rally Championship at the weekend, Guy Wilks is determined to keep the good times rolling.

The 23-year-old Darlington rally driver's campaign has gone from disastrous to fabulous in the space of two races.

Having failed to finish the opening round in Monte Carlo five months ago, Wilks swept to victory in his Super 1600 Suzuki Ignis in the Acropolis Rally in Greece.

Wilks is now second in the standings after securing the maximum ten points in Greece - just eight points behind championship leader Nicolas Bernardi who finished second in his Renault Clio.

"I am absolutely over the moon to be honest," said Wilks, speaking to ECHO Sport as he made his way back to England yesterday. "It is great to be the first British winner of a Super 1600 round. It's a massive achievement for me, Phil (Pugh, co-driver) and the team.

"It's a massive achievement just to win a Super 1600 round, but to be the first British one is quite special.

"I said to Phil after the disappointment in Monte Carlo not that we have got to go and win it, but we are going to go and win it.

"I said it quietly just between Phil and I. I said let's be mentally prepared for it, physically prepared for it and let's just go and do the business and we managed to so it was all well and good."

The victory is no mean feat as the Acropolis Rally is widely regarded as one of the most difficult on the circuit. As well as roasting temperatures drivers also had to contend with sharp rocks and even the odd spot of rain. Conditions were so tough that only five of the original 21 cars reached the finish 377kms later.

"The first day went according to plan," Wilks said. "We said we didn't want to be busting a gut trying to set the pace consistently. It's just not a rally that you can really do that.

"But we wanted to be there or thereabouts all the time and we didn't have a time outside the top three throughout the first day which was ideal."

However, it wasn't all plain sailing as a puncture on the second stage on Saturday ate into the lead Wilks had established.

"We set the fastest time on the first stage on Saturday by seven seconds over 14kms which was very good. But on the second stage we got the puncture which was really unfortunate. I spoke to Petter Solberg who won the rally and he also hit the same thing - a piece of metal that was sticking up out of the road through one of two mines that we ran through which hadn't been spotted on the recce.

"Petter and Harri Rovanpera both hit it but they have mousse in their tyres so they stayed inflated whereas ours don't. We knew we had to stop and change it and we lost two and a half minutes.

"It's mentally frustrating because we were only 5km into a 29km stage. To have a knock like that it was like 'why the hell has that happened?'. But when we got to the end of the stage it was plain to see. It was like someone had shoved a big Stanley knife through the tyre."

Going into the final day the pair had a two-and-a-half-minute lead and, as Wilks put it, "it was just all to lose".

He said: "It was very difficult to concentrate. You want to back off just enough but you don't want to lose concentration.

"I found myself starting to do that and I said to Phil we have to go a bit quicker and it worked fine. You can push too hard or relax too much, you have to find the right balance and we managed to do that."

Wilks will not have too much time to celebrate once back in England as he is heading to Scotland for the next round of the British Rally Championship at the weekend. After that it's back to the JWRC with a trek to Turkey at the end of the month.

"I only have one and a half day's between now and going to Scotland," he said. "It's fantastic match practice. You want to be in the car as much as possible. That's what I complained about last year; not getting in the car.

"I am overjoyed with the result and just want to keep it going now.

"We are in a good place in the championship; lying second overall from what was a disastrous start. It's gone from one extreme to the other. We have to keep it going now. We have to keep on the button and keep getting consistent results."

* Consett co-driver Stephen Robson partnered Barry Groundwater to tenth place in the Mutiny Rally at the weekend, the fourth round of the Mitsubishi Evolution Challenge.

* The Abbey in Middlesbrough is latest company to back the Middlesbrough Bears speedway team. The company has donated £250 towards supporting the efforts of the Bears.

Steve Harland, the club's director of operations, said: "It's a fantastic gesture from the Abbey's 'Community Partnership' to consider a club as small as ours."

Published: 08/06/2004