The 26-year-old was a guest driver in the category, after being nominated by his sporting authority, the Motor Sports Association, to run in the division,

His rally was made more complex as he was also battling with fellow Briton Mark Higgins, 36, for the British Rally Championship title.

For the majority of the event Wilks and Higgins duelled at the front, both of them pushing their Mitsubishi Lancer’s to the maximum.

However, Higgins had a run of problems, including punctures and gearbox woes, at the end of day one, and was never able to recover the lost ground as more issues beset his car.

At the finish an elated Wilks, who is co-driven by Phil Pugh, said: “I’m absolutely delighted. That was a long final stage. I was concentrating 100% but it is an absolutely fantastic feeling.

“Great. Awesome. I’m over the moon. It’s been a hard year.”

Higgins, co-driven by Scott Martin, was heart-broken after the rally - and faced a tough battle just to get his Mitsubishi to the finish at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium as his gearbox problems worsened.

The 36-year-old said: “We’ve lost 4th, 5th and 2nd gears and we’re not back to Cardiff yet. Guy did well and made very few mistakes. But next year I’ll be back to give him a fight.”

Higgins’ late woes promoted Finns Juho Hanninen and Mikko Markkula into second in the PWRC category after an impressive drive in which they took the battle to the local stars.

“I’m pleased with that, although the goal is always first position,” said Mitsubishi driver Hanninen.

On the opening leg of the rally Toshi Arai was crowned as Production Car World Rally Champion.

Although he was not competing on the event, Arai’s chief rival Gabriel Pozzo (Mitsubishi) crashed out, meaning hiss points total couldn’t be overcome.

Production Car World Rally Championship

*Results remain subject to official FIA confirmation