HIGGINS HAPPY RETURNS

The Pirelli International Rally made a triumphant return to Carlisle, bringing out the crowds in their thousands to see the cream of Britain’s rallying talent battle it out for valuable points in the Kwik Fit/ Pirelli British Rally Championship, it was also a triumph for Welsh based Manxman, Mark Higgins, who dominated the rally in his Ford Focus WRC, taking fastest time on 14 of the rallies 18 Special Stages to take a 1½ minute winning margin from the similar car of Langwathby’s Paul Bird with Irish star Austin McHale taking third place in yet another Ford Focus just beating his eldest son Gareth who was in a Toyota Corolla.

The final loop of stages in Kielder Forest, Newcasleton and Kershope were run on forest roads made extremely slippery by a series of heavy showers of both rain and hailstones and there were numerous tales of woe from the competitors as they arrived back at the finish in Carlisle. Bird clouted a large rock which damaged the sumpguard and produced a worrying vibration, the same rock caught out Jonny Milner (Toyota)who broke a wheel and sustained suspension damage while Stephen Petch’s Subaru also gave it a hefty thump.

David Higgins, with a new gearbox fitted to his Mitsubishi, picked up speed but was unable to overhaul Tapio Laukannen for the Production Cup honours, he lost out by just 40 seconds, without a 50 second penalty, incurred for booking out of service late, he would have done it.

Seb Lings Hyundai Accent was slowed by steering troubles, believed to be power steering problems while the other SPG Hyundai of Richard Gower retired with undisclosed mechanical problems on the Newcastleton stage.

The crews were almost unanimous in their praise for the stages, describing them variously as “Fantastic” and “Awsome”, despite this, Kielder lived up to it’s “Killer” reputation and extracted a fair toll of retirements and bruised cars amongst the entry.