Guy Wilks was about to sign contract for third works Subaru before news of the withdrawal came through
Guy Wilks was taken by complete surprise by Subaru's decision to pull out of the 2009 WRC, according to crash.net.
Wilks had planned to contest at least an eight round programme in a third works Subaru for next year's world championship and was about to sign a contract with the team just hours after Subaru's announcement on Tuesday.
He is now being forced to consider his options for the 2009 season .
Wilks told crash.net:
I'm absolutely stunned. We have been working so hard to earn this opportunity and thanks to the generosity of rally fans who backed the Wilks 500 Club, and a major private investor, we were so close to making it happen.
The money was in place. The final amendments to the contract had been agreed and we were due to sign this week and hold a media launch on Friday.
It's so sad to see Subaru quit the WRC. They were the iconic team with millions of fans around the world. The WRC is part of Subaru's DNA. It would have been a privilege to be the first Brit since Colin and Richard to drive for Subaru and I was really look forward to working with David Richards.
But this is now yesterday's news. We can't change it. We have to move on and work hard for tomorrow."
Members of the Wilks 500 Club are due to contacted in the next ten days to be informed of what Subaru's withdrawal will mean for them.
According to wrc.com Wilks deal with Subaru for the 2009 season is understood to have included performance clauses which if satisfied would have led to a paid contract with the manufacturer in 2010.
A representative from Guy Wilks management team commented to wrc.com:
It’s difficult to know where to go with this now. We could look at doing the P-WRC again in a Super 2000 car for experience, or selected rounds of the WRC as a privateer, but neither of these is the ideal scenario. After two winning years in the British Rally Championship Guy had proved he was ready for the top level.
There is still a dialogue with Prodrive and we haven’t given up hope of a drive on Rally Ireland. The deadline for entries is Christmas Eve. Between now and then we’ll try to work something out with Prodrive and the members of the 500 club.”
Sources: crash.net and wrc.com
Image: guywilks.com
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
have you cars