GUY Wilks heads the Junior World Rally Championship standings after a fine debut in Suzuki's new Swift.

The car replaced the Ignis for last weekend's Rally of Finland and it certainly lived up to its name under the stewardship of the Darlington driver.

Wilks secured a superb third in Scandinavia, a result which means he has opened up a four-point lead at the top of the championship.

However, it wasn't all plain sailing.

He picked up a puncture on the first forest stage, and things got even worse when he discovered that he could not get the wheel off as the tyre was jammed against the brake calliper. He was forced to drive down the stage until he found a suitable place to change the wheel and, in total, lost nearly five minutes.

That was the start of an amazing comeback drive that would see Wilks win over a third of all the stages and end up on the third step of the podium.

"After I had the problem, I knew I just had to go for it," said Wilks.

"Luckily, the Swift is an absolutely fantastic car.

"I felt very confident in the suspension and the handling and by the end of the first day I was already up to fifth.

"From then on I took it a bit more steadily, as I knew I had to get to the finish.

"The really good thing was that we were able to get quick times out of the car without even pushing especially hard."

Daniel Sordo in a Citroen C2 won the event, with Wilks' Suzuki team-mate Urmo Aava in second.

Wilks has 29 points now and is ahead of team-mate PG Andersson and Sordo (25 points) in the standings.

The next round of the Junior World Rally Championship is Rally Deutschland from August 26-28.

Published: 09/08/2005