Q&A: Guy Wilks - 8 July 2010

Guy Wilks has been out of action since injuring his back in a high-speed crash on Rally d´Italia-Sardegna in early June. The Škoda UK Motorsport driver speaks about his recovery and his hopes for success when he returns to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge on Barum Czech Rally Zlin in late August.

How do you feel right now?
“I feel fine in myself, obviously a little bit restricted still but a damn sight better than I felt straightaway after the accident. It was a lot of pain but that’s totally gone now. It’s more a question of flexibility... a little bit of aching around the fracture area but other than that I feel great and I can quite happily do a lot of things.”

When you say a lot of things are you able to do your normal fitness training?
“Not quite that much yet but I can swim, walk any distance fine... it doesn’t sound a lot but by walking and not having pain is a great relief really. It won’t be too long before I get back doing some fitness... probably quite carefully to start with... things with a low impact, probably not running but some cycling – things like that. Even if it’s static I should be able to get back to that in the next couple of weeks.”

Are you concerned that you will aggravate the injury?
“I’ve never been one of those people who worry about injuring themselves. If it happens, it happens. With it being a back injury I’ve got to give it plenty of time because you have to be quite careful so we’re going to take plenty of time with this and do it properly.”

How frustrating have the past four weeks been to you as a driver?
“Massively. Belgium is a fantastic rally to go to as a driver, spectator, manufacturer... I’m so disappointed for the team and everyone at Skoda UK. You feel you’ve let the side down. It was one of those things that because I wasn’t there I didn’t want to watch it so closely – I never do. Obviously I hear what’s going on and keep in contact but it’s very difficult when you know you should be there, should be competing because you’re part of a championship. Seeing everyone else having a great time and a lot of fun and being competitive is quite hard to take. But at the end of the day I don’t hold it against anybody. It was my own doing. I was in control of the car when we went off. It’s one of those things that you have to suck it and see.”

How do you view your championship chances with Hanninen not scoring in Ypres?
“Juho has come on a lot on Tarmac but was always going to be up against it to win in Ypres. It’s all about wins now. It was a case of if anybody above us in the championship didn’t win the rally and also Kris, because Kris has already won one rally in the year, then it would be a good result. The fact that Freddy won was very good for us. Kris and Juho didn’t score – Jan got some decent points but didn’t get that crucial win. Considering we weren’t there and couldn’t affect anything we had a reasonable weekend.”

Is the championship still a possibility for you then?
“I think so. It was such a pity because Sardinia was the first time we’d really felt at home in the car. The shakedown was great and it was the first time that I thought this is going to be the one. It was a case of what happened, happened. We were so disappointed because up until that point I’d only been driving the car and not getting much testing and the car wasn’t quite the set-up I wanted. It was such a shame we went off on the first stage because it just felt so good. If we can get that feeling in the car again I would like to think we can still challenge for wins. I don’t feel it’s going to be too much of a problem to get back to that pace.”

Does the accident still play on your mind?
“It’s quite strange. I genuinely if I ever have an accident or problem I analyse it straightaway and by that I mean in the first couple of days. That’s the best way because you get it out of your mind and you know what went wrong and you can deal with it. That’s the way we always do it. To be honest I’ve forgotten about it apart from the fact I have a little problem with my back. But in terms of the accident it’s forgotten about.”

Was lying in hospital in Oristano the lowest point of your career?
“I’ve felt lower a couple of times losing Junior world championships. It’s quite lucky actually because at the start of this programme Skoda UK committed to six events and we’ve already done five and scored points on four, podiums on three consecutively. Yes we were trying to do that special thing and get on the top step of the podium, I won’t deny that, but at the same time Skoda have upped the ante in terms of the events we are going to be doing. If this had happened at the end of the year when I needed to get those wins, I can afford to miss two rallies at this point in the championship. That’s why I’m quite lucky. If it was happening at the end when it was coming critical then it could have been a problem. I was more mad with myself laying in hospital because I thought it was the wrong pacenote but in actual fact the pacenote was maybe marginally aggressive but I know exactly what I did. I got into the corner too late, got the back end on the dust and the rest was history as they say. That’s one of those things when you are pushing to the limit in a championship that’s very tight things like that can happen. You just have to look at Kris this year. He’s had some problems along the way and it’s pressure, it’s a pressure situation. You have to make a plan to win these events because it doesn’t come to you. You have to go there with the attitude of trying to win them.”

Did you know straightaway you’d hurt yourself when you crashed?
“Up until we hit the rock I was actually thinking we might be lucky enough to get away with it because we went through a small bush and into a field. But behind that were two boulders that stopped us from getting anywhere near back to the road. But it happened and that’s the way it is. We’ve got to look forwards. It was a big impact hitting boulders at that speed is no joke. The car stood up to it fantastically well. If anything it was probably my own fault for not having the right lumbar support in the seats. We all know what can happen but that doesn’t stop us from being rally drivers and there’s no way it’s deterred me in any way.”

What’s the plan now?
“The next few weeks bring more recuperation and getting back to my normal level of fitness. We’ll miss the Azores because it was very tight in terms of getting the car together. We’ll take a look after that in terms of the plan. Missing that one gives us more breathing space and then I know I’ll be properly back to fitness. That’s the plan.”

Is there a target event when you will return?
“I think it’s going to be Barum to be honest. Madeira is quite difficult to get to because it’s another island rally. By the time we do Barum there are other rallies that follow on quite quickly so it will be nice to get in the car and do some testing. Obviously we’ll have the new shape car as well – one good thing to come out of a bad thing. Obviously we’re looking forward to getting into that and seeing how that compares to the old car. Freddy did a fantastic job with it out of the box in Belgium. It’s frustrating standing on the sidelines watching everyone else compete but sometimes you have to do that.”

Missing the Azores isn’t necessarily a bad thing because you’d effectively be playing catch up as everyone has done that event and you haven’t...
“It’s like we always say, even if you’ve done an event the year before you have a small advantage but you can never discount a quality driver coming there for the first time and upsetting everybody. Obviously Kris, Juho and Jan have been there before but at the same time Kris has been to Brazil and other guys to different rallies. If you are of a decent standard you can pretty much go anywhere. If it’s your first time things are slightly against you but it’s all about confidence. If you have that confidence you can pull anything off.”