COUNTY Durham rally driver Guy Wilks is set to debut the MML Sports Mitsubishi Evo X in Latvia next week.

Wilks, from Darlington, but now based in Chester-le-Street, will take on four other national champions in Rally Talsi on May 16 and 17 in front of more than 40,000 fans.

The double British champion completed his first miles in the Evo X at MIRA recently and a gravel test is scheduled in Latvia immediately before the rally start.

Wilks told his website www.guywilks.com: "My first impressions of the MML Evo X are good, but MIRA was more about familiarisation, systems checking and mapping work on the engine.

"It won't be until we get to a gravel road next week at the pre-event test to see for sure how good it is.

"But it was an easy decision when MML Sports asked me to drive for them. The team has a huge amount of experience at the top of the sport."

MML Sports is the management team of the old Ralliart Europe, which used to run Mitsubishi's world rally programme.

MML boss John Easton said: "We chose Guy as he is clearly a quick driver, double British champion and when you look at his time in the Production World Rally Championship, he was quicker than any of the drivers out there.

"He's also very sensible and has lots of Evo 9 experience, which means he will be able to give excellent feedback to the team."

Easton added: "We're expecting something in the region of 40 top class Group N cars in Latvia so we will have a genuine understanding of how competitive our car is.

"I think both the team and Guy realise it won't be a walk in the park - he'll have to drive well and as a team, we'll use all of our experience to get the best result possible."

The 2009 BTA Talsi Rally begins with a double-run superspecial around the streets of Talsi town on Saturday afternoon and finishes with a 33.4km stage on Sunday afternoon.

Wilks will face competition from Finnish champion Juha Salo, Latvian champion Aivis Egle, Lithuanian champion Vytautas Svedas and the Estonian champion Ott Tanak.