GUY Wilks hopes of Intercontinental Rally Challenge success blew up, literally, in Hungary.
The Darlington rally driver was in the hunt for honours on the Canon Mecsek Rallye when his Peugeot UK 207 S2000 suffered mechanical problems on Special Stage Five.
"We were fighting for good times and pushing hard," he said. "Halfway through the stage all of a sudden we got some fluid on the windscreen and I had to wipe it, but I was scared it was actually oil.
"When I wiped it I could see it wasn't oil, but it still left a smear and it was coolant. At that point I didn't know where it had come from, but what actually happened was the pipe had come completely off and dumped all the water at once. So when I wiped the windscreen it went and I couldn't get anymore water."
A warning light then came on, warning Wilks of rising engine temperatures.
"We could see 100 degrees and that is normally not too bad, but actually what it was reading by then was air temperature and we had no water in the engine and unfortunately the engine blew up after that," he said.
Wilks' failure to finish leaves him seventh and hoping for a change of fortunes in San Remo next time out.
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