County Durham rally driver Chris Anderson heads north to Ingliston near Edinburgh this weekend hoping to build on a promising start to his career.

The 17-year-old maintenance engineer from Butterknowle near Bishop Auckland is driving on only his third event with the Dunfermline Car Club-organised Howford Hydraulics Tarmac Stages which is a qualifying round of the AS Performance North of England Tarmac Rally Championship that he is contesting this season.

After a promising 11th in class last time out at Crail near St Andrews, Chris has once again teamed up with the experienced Chris Thirling to perform co driving duties in the Wilkinson Maintenance and John Cullerton & Sons-sponsored and MSR Motorsport-prepared Ford Puma S1600 around the former racetrack near the Scottish airport.

Following a year in junior rallycross in 2007, whereby he finished third overall in the BTRDA Championship and won the BTRDA best newcomer award, Anderson sensibly sat last year out as he concentrated on his GCSEs but he made his rallying debut on the Cartersport Jack Frost Stages Rally in January this year.

Sadly, that ended in retirement with a broken gearlever but after last month's promising performance, he is looking forward to Saturday's event:

"I'm hoping I can get more experience in the car and to improve on my result last time out. I'm now getting used to how everything works and to the power so it's all about learning at present. Hopefully, we can get a decent result as I'd like to do well in the championship this year" said Chris.

Indeed the car is one previously campaigned by double British Rally Champion Guy Wilks who is a fellow County Durham resident and along with former Scottish Champion, Barry Johnson from Shildon, the pair are aiming to help the talented youngster with his career.

"Barry is a class driver and has said he'll help me out wherever he can and by doing that; he's going to ask Guy to give me a couple of lessons if possible. Also, former Mitsubishi Challenge winner, Ryan Champion, is coming to a forthcoming test to give me a few pointers so I'm feeling very privileged at the moment" said Chris.

After his latest cross-border trip, it's back to more familiar territory for Anderson when he contests the ALM Autodrome Stages at Teesside Autodrome near Middlesbrough on 4th May and after three successful shakedowns around the racetrack, he's confident of a good performance.