Guy Wilks might have been grounded by volcanic ash for much of his journey back to the UK from a recent rally test in Italy, but the Škoda UK Motorsport driver is aiming to fly high again when he tackles Round 4 of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the Rally Islas Canarias 'Trofeo El Corte Ingles' (28 April-1 May).
Guy was testing his Fabia S2000 in the mountains above Sanremo when British air space shut down last week. Quick thinking, a car journey from Italy to France, an internal Air France flight to Orly, three trains and a lot of running between ticket desks got Guy home.
Contingency plans have been put in place to get Guy and co-driver Phil Pugh to Gran Canarias by land and sea, but it looks like they’ll be able to fly directly from the UK as originally planned.
The Spanish island of Gran Canarias is located in the Atlantic Ocean about 93 miles (150kms) off the north-western coast of Africa and about 838 miles (1350kms) from Europe. Average daytime temperatures at this time of year are around 21°C (70°F), so Guy is expecting this to be his first dry asphalt rally in the Fabia S2000. He has also never contested the event before, so a good recce and a perfect car set-up will be essential if Guy is to score a hat-trick of consecutive IRC podium finishes, as the event promises to be extremely fast and furious.
Guy arrives in Gran Canarias lying 2nd in the IRC drivers’ table. His aim is clear – try to score as many points as possible and maintain his title challenge, whilst doing all he can to help Škoda strengthen its lead in the manufacturers’ standings.
With so many things new to Guy, his task won’t be easy – especially as the event, which is also a round of the FIA European Cup and Spanish Rally Championship, and has attracted a host of top Super 2000 cars and some local asphalt specialist drivers. In addition to the Škoda UK Motorsport entry, there will be three more Fabia S2000s, driven by Škoda Motorsport pilots Juho Hänninen and Jan Kopecký and Spanish asphalt expert Alberto Hevia. Kris Meeke, Bruno Magalhães, Franz Wittmann, Thierry Neuville and Daniel Oliveira, together with local drivers David Perez and Jonathan Perez,will all drive Peugeot 207 S2000s, while two M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000s will be driven by Alvaro Muniz and Sergio Vallejo.
Guy Wilks: “With three strong points-scoring rallies under our belt and a good test in Italy, I’m a lot more comfortable with the Fabia S2000. We’ve worked hard as a team to find a good set-up for what we expect to be the first dry asphalt rally I’ve ever done in a Škoda, and the car is more suited to my wants and needs now.
“They’ll be a lot of strong competition in Gran Canaria, but I’m confident that we can go there and challenge for fastest stage times and try to finish on the podium again.”
Rally Islas Canarias begins at 20.30 GMT on Thursday 29 April with a ceremonial start at the Parque Santa Catalina in Las Palmas. A physically demanding +12 hour day follows on Friday 30 April, when crews tackle nine all-asphalt stages totalling 85.28 miles (137.25kms). Three stages are tackled between service halts at the Santa Catalina Park, while the penultimate stage of Day 1, Ingenio (SS8), is, at 18.61 miles (29.95kms), the longest stage of the rally.
Day 2 contains a further six stages totalling 52.4 miles (84.34kms). All sections of the stages on Saturday 1 May would have been run the previous day, albeit in the opposition direction – including the longest stage of the day, the 15.7 mile (25.26km) Telde stage, which is attempted twice (SS11 and 14) and uses all-but 3 miles (1.8kms) of the Ingenio test.
After all 15 asphalt stages totalling 137.76 miles (221.59kms) have been completed, the rally is scheduled to finish on Saturday in Las Palmes at 15.47.
