WITH a monster 25km stage early tomorrow, Guy Wilks believes that whoever gels with their car the quickest will have a big advantage when Round 4 of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the Rally Islas Canarias 'Trofeo El Corte Ingles', gets underway.

With a hard two day recce and trouble-free shakedown test behind him, and only the official rally press conference (at 18.15) and the ceremonial start (at 20.30) between him and launching the Skoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000 into the rally's opening stage, Darlington's Wilks and co-driver Phil Pugh are making the most of the remaining hours before their rally debut on Gran Canarias by working on car set-up and making sure the all-important pace notes are perfect.

"The recce days were very long, because the stages are very twisty and mountainous and the average speed limits on the road sections were very low and it took us a long time to drive between the stages," said Wilks. "Even with an 80kph recce stage speed limit, that was quicker than driving on the main roads.

"The stages themselves contain a little bit of everything you'd find on asphalt rallies all over Europe. There are a lot of climbs and downhill sections and there is a real mix of surfaces - everything from smooth new asphalt to older abrasive stuff.

"Today's shakedown stage was, however, nothing like the rest of the event. As that was our only chance of testing on the island, we'll need a good think tonight about what set-up to start the rally on tomorrow.

"The opening loop of stages will be very important - everyone will be going flat-out and there will be no time to ease your way in," added Wilks. "The second stage is almost 25 kilometres long, so if you're up to full speed straight away, you have a good chance to get the jump on someone. I think whoever gels with their car the quickest tomorrow will have a big advantage."