Guy Wilks

WRC driver
Name = Guy Wilks
Nationality = flagicon|UK British
Years = 2002 -
Teams = Mitsubishi, Ford, Suzuki
Races = 43
Championships = 0
Wins = 0
Podiums = 0
Stagewins = 0
Points = 3
First race = 2002 Swedish Rally

Guy Wilks (born 22 January 1981 in Darlington, County Durham) is a rally driver, from Great Britain.

Wilks first tried his hand in a rally car at the age of 19, having, for some years in his teens, made motorcycle trials his more preferred exploit. He was Ford Ka Junior Champion in 2000 in his first year in the sport, graduating within the Ford stable's fabled 'Ladder of Opportunity' scheme to the Puma 1400 cc series for 2001. There, he mustered second place in the championship.

He followed this success up with a berth in one of Ford's Super 1600 specification Pumas for the 2002 British Rally Championship season. His efforts in only being outdone that year by relative national-level veteran Gwyndaf Evans, only served to secure him yet more support from Ford, which placed him in one of its cars for the Junior World Rally Championship in 2003, being rewarded with his sixth place finish in the points standings that season. This competence earned him attention from championship incomers Suzuki, whose Ignis model would prove to be Wilks's ride of choice for 2004.

Notable for the ensuing three seasons for his regular forays for the Japanese marque's 'works' team in the Junior World Rally Championship alongside Swede Per-Gunnar Andersson, Wilks, in spite of numerous near-misses, would ultimately fail to gather the title in quite the manner his team-mate had managed to do in 2004, although he did manage third in the standings that year, to add to his Super 1600 category title in the British Rally Championship that year, and was to better it by a place - and in doing so usurp Andersson - in 2005. The grandest prize, however, continued to elude him in his spell in the series. He was quietly axed at Suzuki, alongside Andersson, just at the moment that the marque's anticipated fully-fledged World Rally Championship participation was being confirmed for the latter half of 2007.

With the British series now operating to Group N production car regulations, Wilks joined the Mitsubishi Motors UK Works team for a successful tilt at the full title in 2007. His British commitments were designed to dovetail continuing adventures in the World Rally Championship, with Mobil 1 support allowing him to make his World Rally Car debut in Norway.

After a number of costly events on which he repeatedly shunted his private Ford Focus WRC, he managed his first top ten finish in the car on the Acropolis Rally in Greece and picked up his first points with sixth place in Rally Ireland.

External links

* [http://www.rallybrc.co.uk/driver-details-page.asp?DriverID=19 British Rally Championships: Guy Wilks - personal profile]
* [http://www.guywilks.com Official Site]
* [http://www.guywilks.com/500club.aspx Wilks 500 Club - Back The Brit]