A HEREFORDSHIRE rally star is set to reach the peak of the sport this weekend when he co-drives in the World Rally Championship.

Keaton Williams is to join Takamoto Katsuta in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris WRC in this weekend's Renties Ypres Rally replacing the injured Dan Barritt.

The young Japanese driver has been the find of the season but this will be his first trip to the notoriously treacherous roads of the Flanders region.

Williams has co-driven Irish youngster Josh McErlean for the last two years on both European and World Championship events, writes Paul Willetts.

His exploits have not gone unnoticed by Toyotaband he will be the sixth co-driver to make his WRC debut this year.

Williams says that this is the opportunity he has prepared himself for his entire life.

"To be at the highest level of any sport your in has always been the get go," said Williams.

if your not ambitious then your almost flogging a dead horse and you've always got to look forward and push yourself hard to be successful." Williams says

"Even when I was younger all my mates played rugby cricket or football but for me it was always cars and motorsport and being from a rally mad area helped me realise my dream, especially with my local event the Woodpecker Stages on my doorstep.

"When I was a kid I would always play with cars in the garden even in the pouring rain, I also had a little go-kart to ride around on. It's good to look back but I realise there is a lot of hard work to come to go forward."

The pair are no strangers to each other in the car as Williams has replaced Barritt at the pre-event tests in Portugal, Estonia, Sardinia earlier this year and now Ypres.

Learning is Williams ultimate objective and he is all about the bigger picture preparing himself for life has a full time co-driver.

So how does he assess these new era of WRC cars and prepare for Ypres?

"These WRC cars are phenomenal you can sit in them regularly but they still blow your mind," he added.

"I'm always 100%, I do everything over and over again especially now this week for Ypres.

"I just want to make sure everything is spot on for Taka and the team.

"I understand I'm young and I do lack the experience of my contemporaries but the only way to gain that is to do events."

The event takes place between Friday (August 13) and Sunday (August 15).