Wilks drives into early lead in Scottish rally

And as the cars rolled gently off the ceremonial start ramp before the cackle of the Super 2000 engines reverberated off the ancient walls, the penultimate round of the Intercontinental Rally Championship headed for the forests.

Unusually for a modern-day rally, the opening two stages were run through the pitch black of a Scottish forest track with the scenery pierced only by the glaring headlights temporarily fitted to the cars. And the significance of the dark test, a double 5.5-mile run through the Carron Valley — the first time the stage had been used for around 16 years — wasn’t lost on Alister McRae. The 40-year-old Lanark ace, piloting his Proton Satria S2000, admitted just before he headed to the stage that he hadn’t rallied in the dark for three years.

“Am I looking forward to it?” he laughed. “Hmmm, not sure. I’m not as young as I used to be and though I’m fighting not to have to wear glasses, I’m beginning to think I might need to have an eye test.

“So far though, I’m managing to go fast enough, but the big concern I have is that if I start wearing glasses and start seeing where I’m going and what I’m doing, I might scare myself silly and have to take brave pills.”

When the cars emerged from the moonlit opening two stages, 2009 winner, Darlington’s Guy Wilks, headed for overnight service having established an early lead.

The Englishman, desperate to win his first IRC event since signing for Peugeot after last year’s RallyScotland, completed the opening stages in 10mins 46.7secs.

Wilks, whose future in the IRC is uncertain for 2012, enters today’s (Sat) six stages leading the Skoda S2000 of Juho Hanninen by 4.4s.

“For me those were the toughest two stages we’ll experience in the rally,” Wilks admitted afterwards.

“The conditions were treacherous, very tricky and slippery. It’s good to get them out of the way.”

Hanninen meanwhile, last year’s RallyScotland winner and defending IRC champ, struggled to establish any rhythm.

“Not ideal,” the Finn commented. “There’s a lot of mud on the inside of the corners and to be honest it was like I was a pupil at a rally driving school.”

With Swede P-G Andersson in third, 4.6s behind Wilks and 0.2s adrift of Hanninen, there was mixed news for the two principal Scots, McRae and David Bogie.

“No confidence on my first run,” McRae, 17.2s behind Wilks, admitted, “but we improved on the second run; a lot better.”

It was an even more nightmarish start though for newly-crowned British Rally Champ Bogie.

“Disastrous,” the 24-year-old from Dumfries said as he sat in his Mitsubishi Evo IX.

“In the first stage we lost the intercom three corners into the first stage and that cost us about ten seconds.

“We thought we’d cured it for the second stage by wedging a little stone into the battery casing to hold the connection in place, but two corners into the second stage it fell out. Time for bed now and hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow.”