GUY Wilks may not have retained the title, but he was still one of the stars of this year’s Rally of Scotland.

The Skoda UK Motorsport driver retired while leading the Intercontinental Rally Challenge event after his Fabia S2000 suffered a broken transmission.

Mechanics repaired the damage on Saturday evening to allow the Darlington driver to entertain the crowd with a stunning performance on Sunday.

Though not classified in the final results, Wilks and co-driver Phil Pugh were the stars of the day, setting fastest time on three of the four stages to emphasise what might have been.

For that performance, Wilks received the Colin McRae IRC Flat Out Trophy.

He was presented with the award by Jimmy McRae, part of the three-man judging panel.

“We decided very early on to come out and do Day 2, because there are a lot of spectators here, the rally was live on Eurosport, we wanted to continue to support the event and we enjoy driving over these fantastic stages,” said Wilks afterwards. “Skoda UK Motorsport did a great job to repair the car and it was perfect.

We obviously didn’t want to throw the car off the road, but we wanted to set some good times, show off the car and show the spirit of rallying.

“Even though we weren’t going to feature in the results, this has been one of the best day’s rallying I’ve ever had – topped off by winning the Colin McRae IRC Flat Out Trophy.

“That’s a great accolade and something very special to take away from this rally, especially as Jimmy McRae was part of the judging panel. It’s a great honour.

“For a number of years Phil has enabled me to set top stage times, and this award is for both of us. He was absolutely on the button.”