David sticks with Autotek for Wales Rally GB

After taking a podium finish on Trackrod Rally Yorkshire with the Autotek team, David Higgins has revealed he will continue working with them on Wales Rally GB.

TQ.com crew David and his co-driver Ieuan Thomas finished third in Yorkshire in the Autotek Subaru Impreza - and that was despite the crew coming face-to-face with a digger driving towards them in one of the stages.

“Wales Rally GB is an intense three day rally,” says David. “For an event that long you need to know you are in a car you trust, with a good team running it. In Yorkshire I found Ken Skidmore and the Autotek team extremely professional in both the way they ran the car and their interest in how we were progressing during the event. We were new to them, but they made us feel very welcome.

“By staying with them I know I will be in the best position possible to do well on the WRC event. And it counts as two rounds of the British Rally Championship, so double points are at stake.”

The rally, which is also the final round of the World Rally Championship, takes place from 29th November to 2nd December.

David takes the podium in Yorkshire, despite an on-stage encounter with a digger

It was their first competitive event in a new car, but it didn’t stop David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas securing a podium position on Trackrod Rally Yorkshire last weekend.

And if switching from a Super 2000 Toyota to a Group N Subaru Impreza was not challenge enough, David and Ieuan faced a much bigger challenge - when they met a digger driving towards them in a stage.

“We were in the third stage driving at over 100 miles per hour,” says David. “We came over a crest and it was just there in the stage driving towards us. The spikes on it were pointing at us. I’m not sure how we got past it safely, it was an extremely dangerous thing to have happen on a rally and could have ended disastrously."

“After that I lost my rhythm completely. You can’t drive flat out over crests when you’ve just come over one and found something like that in your path, you wonder if you will meet anything else in the stage.”

David also lost time in the opening stage when, like many competitors, he overshot a junction. “Between that and the digger I overdrove for the rest of the rally trying to make up time, and made mistakes. After all that it was fantastic to end up on the podium,” he says.

There was an up side to the event though as David and Ieuan enjoyed their outing in the Autotek Motorsport Subaru Impreza. The car, last seen when Nasser Al-Attiyah drove it on Rally Greece earlier this year, performed well during the 100-mile event.

“The car’s been fantastic,” says David. “We are still in talks to secure a car for use on Rally GB which counts as two rounds of the BRC and we haven’t ruled out using the Autotek car again. It was great to be involved with a WRC winning team. After doing the rally with them you can see why they won.”

The result moved David up to eighth overall in the BRC drivers points table.

David’s TQ.com team mate Hugh Evans and co-driver Iestyn Williams finished 11th in the BRC points in Yorkshire on their first attack on the one-day event. After suffering with transmission problems, they did well to nurse their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 home to a solid finish.

They also hit a bale in the first stage of the event – denting the side of the Evo9 which had escaped undamaged during the roll which finished their attack on the Ulster International Rally in September.

The TQ.com teams next joint outing is on Rally GB, but before that David and Ieuan will return to China for the final round of the Chinese Rally Championship. So far this year they have won every round of the series in a Mitsubishi Lancer.

Trackrod Rally Yorkshire information

To keep an eye on the TQ.com team during Saturday's one-day Trackrod Rally Yorkshire visit http://www.trackrodmotorclub.co.uk/RYLiveres.htm for live online results.

David and Ieuan are seeded at number 5 in their Subaru Impreza. Their TQ.com team mates Hugh and Iestyn are seeded at number 28 in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9.

The rally is based at Pickering Showgrounds in Yorkshire. The first stage starts at 09.44 for the international crews, and the rally is due to finish at the Showground at 18.10.