That's why he registered as a points scorer in the international Irish Tarmac championship even though he has no great expectations of becoming champion. Or even if he will be able to appear on any further rounds of the Global group series.

It was a decision which did not go down well with some of the major title contenders but winner Meeke says there were good reasons why he belatedly signed up.

"I didn't register for Tarmac points before the Easter International because that was only meant to be a one-off drive in Kenny McKinstry's Subaru," explains the Junior World championship ace from Dungannon.

"On top of that I genuinely had no idea how I would do; whether I would even be competitive in the company of people like Mark Higgins and Eugene Donnelly.

"I had virtually no experience of WRC cars, which is partly why I couldn't get a full drive in the World championship this year, and I certainly had no experience of them on Irish tarmac.

"Nor had I any experience of rallies like the Easter International. I may have grown up in Dungannon but other than the Ulster Rally in a 1600cc car I've never driven any other Irish rallies.

"So it was all very much unknown territory for me and in the circumstances it never occurred to me to register for championship points.

"As it turned out, I led the rally for a time, set competitive times and, but for circumstances outside anyone's control, I might have finished second or third. On a good weekend I might even have won it.

"But that would probably have been the end of it had Kenny McKinstry and Kevin Barrett and some other people, several of whom I didn't even know, not provided the funds for me to go to the Rally of the Lakes.

"And in the light of what happened at Easter I felt I might have a chance of winning - and if I did have the good fortune to win I didn't want others drivers to be able to say afterwards they weren't trying to race me because they could get maximum Tarmac points for finishing second.

"If I won I wanted it to be a real win. I didn't mean to upset anyone, just make sure no one could say I won by default."

Reigning champion Donnelly, who finished second for his new Reid Motorsport team, admits he was annoyed when he realised Meeke had signed on for the series late in the day but now says he fully understands.

"I didn't know Kris had registered until the second day of the rally and I was already 20-odd seconds down on him," he said. "Don't get me wrong, he wasn't leading because I was thinking I didn't need to beat him. I was trying as hard as I could.

"I was already feeling pretty low from a flu bug and maybe I was starting to think second wouldn't be such a bad thing, especially with full points and Mark (Higgins) a couple of places back.

"Suddenly I had to pick myself up and really step on it. We had a great race to the end and fair play to Kris he held me off and took a very good win.

"Now that I know what it was all about I totally understand where he is coming from. There are no hard feelings."

British champion Higgins leads the Tarmac series on 38 points to Donnelly's 24 with Norwegian wonder-kid Andreas Mikkelsen third on 20. Meeke is sixth on 15, behind Eamonn Boland (19) and Kevin Lynch (18).