1/12/08
Mitsubishi wins British Rally Championship appeal
Wales Rally GB will be the setting for a winner-takes-all British title shootout after the British Motor Sports Council overturned the exclusion of Mitsubishi team driver Guy Wilks from an earlier rally.
Wilks participation on Rally GB, and that of his Mitsubishi team-mate Gwyndaf Evans, had hinged on a positive outcome from the proceedings.
Wilks crossed the line one-and-a-half minutes ahead of his rivals on Trackrod Rally Yorkshire in September, winning all ten stages. But the result has been in limbo for two months after a protest alleged that the upper part of his Lancer’s steering column did not comply to Group N regulations.
However, last week the MSC National Court agreed that although it was not the homologated item, it complied with the FIA International Sporting Code, which states that the controls may be adapted to facilitate their use and accessibility.
The decision means Wilks was reinstated as winner of the Trackrod and now has the opportunity of challenging to retain his British Driver’s title.
Wilks chief rivals are brothers Mark Higgins (Subaru) and David Higgins (Subaru) who are joint top of the drivers’ standings on 78 points, with Guy third on 76 points.
“I’m just glad we can settle the British Rally Championship out on the stages, just as it should be,” said Wilks, who is hoping to join a WRC manufacturer M2 team in 2009.
www.wrc.com
