By Amanda Little

Last updated at 11:54, Thursday, 04 December 2008

Cumbrian rally star Matthew Wilson has shrugged off warnings of fog, snow, ice and wind – and is determined to secure a top six place in the Wales Rally GB.

Matthew Wilson in action at last year's GB Rally

The 21-year-old Stobart Motorsport driver has notched up six top-eight results this season, including seventh in the previous round in Japan, and goes into the 15th and final round of the World Rally Championship lying 10th in the drivers’ series.

Wilson – the only British driver contesting every round of the championship – is confident he can shine on his home event.

The Ford driver, who forms an all-Cumbrian crew alongside Carlisle-based co-driver Scott Martin, has competed in Wales Rally GB every year since making his WRC debut in Wales in 2004.

Wilson said: “I am looking forward to Rally GB. It is always nice to come back and do your home rally. It has been a good year and we have been making progress. It would be nice to get a strong result to finish off the year in GB.

“We will just see what we can do. It is going to be difficult to know what to expect.

“Obviously there are totally new stages tomorrow, which will spice it up a little bit. The rest of the stages are reversed as well.

“It is going to be a completely new rally. There is only one stage that we have actually got pace-notes for. It is going to really change it around a little bit.

“It could make it quite interesting. We will definitely though be going to try and equal what we did last year when we finished sixth, if not beat it.That could be difficult. But we will give it a go.

“The main aim is to try and finish off this year on a positive note and get another strong result and score some more points.

“Hopefully that will stand us in good stead for next year.”

Wilson – the son of Ford rally team boss and two-times British champion Malcolm Wilson – has been pleased with his progress this season. But reckons with a little bit more luck his current 15-point tally could have been better.

He said: “It has been a big improvement. We have gone from strength-to-strength and we probably could have scored a few more points than we have got as well.

“There are obviously a couple of incidences - for example, in Sweden we lost out on the last day while in fifth position and so we lost a few points there. Also in Argentina we were lying fourth or fifth again.

“There are a couple of things that have not gone our way and we could have probably been even further up in the points table. But the main thing is we have been making improvements and if we can carry that on to GB and even straight into next year it will be good.”

First published at 11:25, Thursday, 04 December 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk