BRITISH Rally Championship chiefs have praised crews for their quick thinking and professionalism after County Durham driver Guy Wilks' car fire at the weekend.

Stage eight of the Pirelli International Rally, based at Carlisle, saw Wilks and Phil Pugh's new Proton S2000 catch fire while leading the rally.

It is thought a hot exhaust might have been to blame for the blaze which destroyed the Darlington driver's car which was on its competitive debut.

As the first cars arrived on the scene, the Satria was already well ablaze, but several of the drivers tried to stem the flames with their own hand held extinguishers.

"We initially used our extinguisher to try and put the car out," said the first driver on the scene Mark Higgins. "But it was obviously going to be no use. So I left Bryan (Thomas) at the scene to wave down the next crews and drove past the burning car to let the radio point know and try and get help.

"By the time Keith (Cronin) arrived, they concentrated their efforts in trying to stop the fire spreading."

Cronin added: "It wasn't a nice scene to see the car burning there when we arrived; you wouldn't wish that on anyone. We did what we could but the car was too well alight."

Championship manager Mark Taylor said: "The crews had the presence of mind to stop the fire from spreading to the forest. We're obviously all very sad for Guy, Phil and the MEM team, but the main thing is that they are OK and that nobody was injured."

Pirelli International Rally manager Brian Kinghorn said: "The crews that stopped and helped are to be praised for their professionalism and level headedness.

"We believe it was the right decision to bring the event back to service, so they could all restart the final pair of stages safely with replacement extinguishers."