Zoom Mexico brought Wilson his first point

Young Stobart Ford team member Matthew Wilson reached an important point in any driver's career during the course of the season: recording a first points-scoring finish. That happened in Mexico, the third event on the World Rally Championship calendar, when the Briton took in a single point.

He admits however that the opening races could have been better: "Things started off pretty slowly as we began with three difficult rallies, two of which were completely new with Monte Carlo being moved to a different route and Norway running for the first time."

The latter part of the season brought in the rewards that were slowly but surely moving in within reach.

"We have had some good speed on other rallies too but just not quite the desired result; but the second half of the year and particularly in the middle we had a solid run of top-ten results which was very promising," the Stobart driver said.

Wilson concluded his 2007 season by grasping points during the final three rounds in Japan, Ireland and on his home event in Great Britain.

"Of all the events, Japan and GB were certainly the best for us. To finish fourth in Japan was awesome but GB was probably good, if not better, because we achieved the result from speed rather than people falling off and finished ahead of some really quick guys," Wilson explained.

The last rally of the 2007 Championship was also the scene for the final showdown of the season-long battle between the Stobart crews and the works Subaru outfit, a battle that the Japanese team ultimately won.

"For the team to be so close to Subaru this year and just miss out on third on the last event was a great effort and a real boost to the team this year," Wilson declared.

Daniel BASTIEN
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