8:05am Sunday 21st March 2010
By Matt Westcott
GUY Wilks is embroiled in an exciting battle for the lead of Rally Argentina, as the fastest three drivers pulled out a gap on the opening four stages on Saturday morning.
Co-driven by Phil Pugh, Darlington's Wilks set his first fastest stage time of the 2010 Intercontinental Rally Challenge in his Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000 on the famous Santa Rosa – San Agustin stage (SS4), which includes one of the most famous watersplashes in international rallying.
After yesterday morning’s 46 mile (75km) loop of four stages near San Agustin – located 62 miles (100kms) south of the service park in Carlos Paz – just 13.7 seconds separate the top three drivers.
A stunning time on the day’s opening stage enabled Juho Hänninen to take the lead, while Wilks is only 0.2 seconds behind 2nd placed Kris Meeke after SS5. Such is the pace of the top three that fourth placed Jan Kopecký is already a further 43.3 seconds behind.
Heavy overnight rain made the stage conditions very changeable, with surface conditions ranging from dry soft sand to mud – making the event all the more challenging for the 69 competitors.
Said Wilks: “The pace is incredibly quick, but we haven’t taken any risks.
"The surface is inconsistent and it’s easy to make a mistake, so we’ve been keeping it in the middle of the road.
“The opening stage this morning didn’t flow as well as we’d have liked and Juho took some time off everyone in there.
"Since then we’ve found a pace which we’re quite happy with and things are going well.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/trade_directory/