BRITISH rally star Guy Wilks is all fired up for his latest challenge, more than three years after he last turned a wheel in anger.

While the fine detail is still to be ironed out, Durham’s Wilks is expected to announce in the coming days that he is to sign a deal to race in the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

It marks a departure from the sport he has become synonymous with, but rallycross is attracting some of the leading names in the game thanks to its high octane, wheel-to-wheel racing.

It is understood that Wilks, 34, will be joining a newly established team and will compete in several rounds of this year’s championship, which began last weekend in Portugal and takes in the likes of Germany, Argentina, Sweden, Canada, Norway and Great Britain.

“I have been out of rallying for a while now, but I have got the bug back and wanted to do something and picked up the phone. It was a little bit too late to get involved full-time this year, but this opportunity arose and I am more than happy with the potential that there is and excited about it at the same time,” he said.

Wilks said he has no regrets about the way his rallying career ended and believes his record stands up well against some of the now established names on the world stage.

“I am not bitter about it all. It’s time and place. Some drivers have had to hang around a hell of a long time to get their opportunity. In the time that I wasn’t ‘hanging around’ I feel like I have done a fair bit with my family and my business, Karting North East, and realised there is a life outside of rallying,” said the now father-of-two.

Now though, he feels re-energised and his desire to race has returned.

“I have got my mojo back. I felt like I was sitting back, watching these guys and thinking ‘what am I doing here? I have got to pick myself up, dust myself off and put myself back in the frame’ and that is exactly what I am going to do,” he said.

Wilks feels he can be competitive quickly once he gets on the start line, but admits he still has a lot to learn.

“It is a completely different discipline in a way, being more orientated around circuit racing. But the car control, with it being gravel and tarmac and with 500 to 600bhp cars and four-wheel drive, means rally drivers are used to that and can adapt a lot more quickly,” he said.

“But I am definitely not cocky about it. I think I can get on the pace quickly, but it is the racecraft. You need to study the other drivers.

“It is like British Touring Cars on steroids and then some. This is as raw as it gets, bumping and rubbing within reason. It is just pure aggression.”