Wales Rally GB: Day one, one BRC round done, one to go

This weekend’s Wales Rally GB counts as two rounds of the British Rally Championship, and David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas have taken fourth place in round one.

The opening round comprised the first six stages of Wales Rally GB. On top of finishing fourth in the BRC points, the crew also lie fifth in the Production World Rally Championship points overnight. They have registered for the PWRC on Rally GB through the TaCK team entry usually taken by Niall McShea.

After three stages Higgins reported his Subaru Impreza as being down on power. “It just feels like it doesn’t want to rev today,” said David. “And we had a spin in the third stage which lost us about 15 seconds.”

Stages four to six were a repeat of the first three, but as darkness fell the crew had to battle through the dark stages in which drivers were saying the conditions were the worst they had seen in Rally GB for years.

“We had problems getting our lamp pod on,” said David. “We ended up having to use cable ties. It was difficult to see in the rain and fog, the conditions were terrible. At one point we thought we were in the middle of the road, but we realised we weren’t when we hit a bank.”

The Saturday and Sunday stages of Rally GB will now combine to form the final round of the British Rally Championship. Going into the last round David lies sixth overall in the championship points but unfortunately cannot lift the title.

David’s fellow TQ.com crew of Hugh Evans and Iestyn Williams were just glad to make it to the end of the day after they landed heavily in stage three and lost their turbo. Their problems continued, but they finished the day helping TQ.com’s points haul in the team’s championship.

More news after leg two.

Meet David at Wales Rally GB

David Higgins will be taking part in an autograph signing session at Wales Rally GB on Thursday 29th November.

You will find him from 6.30pm to 7.00pm beside the start ramp at City Hall in Cardiff.

For more information visit http://www.walesrallygb.com/308_372.php

PWRC entry for David and Ieuan on Wales Rally GB

As the TQ.com team make their final preparations for Wales Rally GB, news has broken that David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas will compete for both British Rally Championship and PWRC points on the World Rally Championship event.

The opportunity to score points in the world production class has come through PWRC driver Niall McShea who has sold his entry under the Russian TaCK team to David for the event.

“It will be fantastic to be running higher up in the field among the PWRC drivers,” says David. “We were second in the PWRC points when we competed in Monte Carlo last year so it will be good to show we’re still on that pace. It’s also good for us because the top three drivers in the BRC points, my brother Mark, Guy Wilks and Gwyndaf Evans, will all be running in the PWRC section of the event so I will be up there in the fight with them for BRC points now too.”

The downside to competing for PWRC points is that it means David is not permitted to test in the same country as the event for three weeks prior to the event.

“We won’t be able to do any pre-GB testing now,” says David. “But we are competing in the Autotek Subaru Impreza again, the one we used on Trackrod Rally Yorkshire, and we were pleased with both the car and the team on that gravel event. We also know the team will do everything they can to help us get through the event. They are a very dedicated crew.”

The TQ.com car will have an addition to its livery for Rally GB too, designed by children from the Ysgol Dyffryn Trannon school near David in Wales.

“We ran a competition for the kids to design a road safety sticker for our car,” says David. “The theme was Look, Stop, Listen or Think. There were 12 winners and their pictures will form a door plate on each TQ.com rally car on Rally GB.”

David and Ieuan will be joined on the event as usual by their TQ.com team mates Hugh Evans and Iestyn Williams in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9. The event will be Hugh’s first foray into the ranks of the WRC as he and David try to secure a good position for TQ.com in the final teams championship standings on the BRC.

Five out of five in China!

David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas completed a full set of wins in the Chinese Rally Championship by winning the Longyou Rally today - and not only did they win the CRC section of the event, they were top finishers in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge too.

It was a hard weekend for the crew who love to win. They had been asked to hold back from pushing too hard by their WY rally team boss who had asked them to ignore setting fastest times on every stage to just concentrate on getting to the finish to pick up enough points to make them team champions.

“Day one was difficult,” says David. “For the first time all year our car developed a misfire, losing us time. But the team worked hard in service to change the suspension and turbo and make sure everything worked perfectly on leg two.”

Despite their problems on leg one David and Ieuan led the CRC and IRC by 44 seconds overnight.

“Leg two was trouble free. We just concentrated on keeping in front of the IRC and CRC. It would have been nice to try and catch Cody Crocker who won the event as part of his Asia Pacific Rally Championship campaign, but we lost too much time on the first day – and the team were making me try to ignore his times, although we did beat him on many stages.

“Ieuan has been ill throughout the rally as well which has not been very nice for him. He kept losing his voice but he still managed to get all of the pacenotes out perfectly as usual.”

David and Ieuan are believed to be the first people who have ever won all five rounds of the CRC. Although David cannot become Chinese champion because he is not Chinese, he has put the WY rally team firmly at the top of the points table.

He says, “Five wins from five events is fantastic for us and the team. It shows how good the team are all working, and it’s great to be part of such a good team. We’re just heading to prize giving now, and I’m glad I don’t have to rush to the airport on this occasion because I expect it will be a big celebration!”

When David and Ieuan return to the UK later this week they will turn their thoughts to Wales Rally GB where they will compete for British Rally Championship points in their Autotek Subaru Impreza.

Longyou Rally update: end of leg one

At the end of the first leg of the Longyou Rally David and Ieuan are leading not only the Chinese Rally Championship, but the Intercontinental Rally Challenge section of the event too.

"We had misfire problems all day and didn't really get any clean stages," says David. "And the stages are getting rough. The team have been fantastic, they've worked hard on the car to ensure we have the best chance of clean runs tomorrow."

During the day the crew made their way past established Chinese favourites including Xu Lang to hold a 44 second overnight lead in the CRC and IRC. Manxman Martin Rowe lies second.

There are six stages, totalling almost 100km, left on leg two.

More news after the finish tomorrow.

Longyou Rally update: the super special

After the 1.82km opening night super special in Longyou, David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas lie eighth overall - just 2.2 seconds behind the rally leader.

Over 5000 people turned out to watch the super special, which was won by Japanese driver Katsuhiko Taguchi.

As it approaches midnight on Friday in the UK, the Saturday stages have just got under way in China.

More news tomorrow night.

The final Chinese challenge

After a three month break it’s back to China for David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas as they prepare for the final round of the Chinese Rally Championship, the Longyou Rally.

The rally takes place on November 9th-11th, and is also the final round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and the Asian Pacific Rally championship.

So far this year David and Ieuan have dominated the Chinese championship. They have won all four rounds in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 putting the WY Rally Team firmly at the top of the points table going into the championship finale.

“That’s a good thing and a bad thing going into this rally,” says David. “It’s great to be in such a dominant position, but it means we’ll have to hold back to ensure we keep things that way. Because the event is IRC and Asian Pacific too there will be a big international field there who it would be great to fight with, but the team boss is begging us not to go flat out to win every stage like we have done on previous events. We’ve worked all year to get to this position, so it would be stupid of us to get drawn into a fight now and lose WY their title.”

The only other team who have a chance of winning the title are the KST team, which is headed by David’s fellow Manxman Martin Rowe.

“If something happens to the KST team, then we can go flat out,” says David. “Aside from that we only need to finish inside the top ten for Chinese points. Holding back from trying to win every stage will be my hardest challenge of the weekend. I like to win.”

Last year David and Ieuan led the gravel event until their car suffered turbo problems. While WY can pick up the team win, David cannot become Chinese rally champion because he is not from China.