Mohe Rally, the journey begins

David and Ieuan have begun their mammoth journey to the Mohe Rally in China today.

The crew are forced to do the journey in two stages because of the event's location in the country. At one point it looked like they may have to do a 24 hour cross country train journey to get there in time!

With a stop over in Beijing, the boys are hoping to stop off at the Olympic Stadium on the way to the rally, which begins on Saturday.

More news soon...

Ulster... Wales... China

With three rounds to go in the British Rally Championship, David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas continue to lead the championship.

David and Ieuan took fifth place points in the BRC section of the Ulster Rally this weekend, while their TQ.com team mates Hugh Evans and Iestyn Williams finished 15th. The combined points haul ensure TQ.com keep their second place in the teams championship fight.

“With three points scoring opportunities left this season, and dropped scores coming into play we need to focus on getting wins to up our points on the next three rounds,” said David. “But it’s been a great year to launch FX Motor Sports to run the team as the competition in the championship is really good, and we’re leading the points and ahead of the reigning teams champions in the fight to become the BRC team champions. That’s a real credit to the team we have put together to run the cars.”

Even when the TQ.com cars were not in the service area, sponsors and friends were able to track the teams’ progress through the stages by using the trackitnow system. Through GPS positioning, the system tracked David and Hugh through the stages showing people in the service park what speed they were doing and where they were on the route.

“Trackitnow worked really well,” said David. “The people in the service park are usually left waiting for our times to come through after each stage for confirmation that we had no problems in the stage, but this way they could immediately see when we had cleared a stage successfully.”

In a year when the TQ.com squad also launched FX Motor Sports, throughout the year they have run three cars faultlessly – the two TQ.com Subaru Imprezas, and the Suzuki Swift of Nick Rowland.

As usual, there is no rest for David and Ieuan over the next few weeks as they return to their base in Wales to prepare to head back to China for the Mohe Rally on September 6/7. The crew won the first round of the Chinese Rally Championship, which they dominated last year, so it will be all eyes on David as he returns to China this week.

Ulster Rally, final results

David and Ieuan have taken fifth place in the BRC race on the Ulster International Rally. The points haul is enough to leave them at the top of the BRC points table, with three rounds to go.

Hugh and Iestyn finished 15th in the BRC points. Their collective points tally means the TQ.com team remain second in the fight to become the BRC teams champions.

Ulster is go!

The Ulster International Rally was due to start at 16.20 this afternoon.

David and Ieuan are car number 10, while Hugh and Iestyn are car number 34.

Follow the results live here

On to Ulster...

David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas believe development work done to their Subaru Impreza N14 since Rally Isle of Man, will allow them to build their championship lead on the Ulster International Rally.

“We were disappointed with our speed on the Manx,” says David. “But with the data we collected there and the development work we’ve done since, things look a lot better for Ulster. We’ve practically rebuilt the TQ.com cars.

“Going into the event we’re leading the points, and it’s important that we leave the event that way too. Guy [Wilks], my brother [Mark Higgins] and now Gwyndaf [Evans, back with the Mitsubishi squad for Ulster] will be good competition, but we’re still confident of a good result.

“And we’ve got to get the points now because when it comes to the double header round on Rally GB at the end of the year we’ll have BRC registered drivers Juho Hanninen and Patrik Flodin rejoining the championship as part of their PWRC season.”

An addition to the FX Motor Sports service area in Ulster will be a screen on which the team and sponsors can keep track of David, his co-driver Ieuan Thomas, and his TQ.com team mates Hugh Evans and Iestyn Williams while they are on the stages.

“We’ll have a GPS tracker in the car called trackitnow,” explains David. “That way the team can monitor our progress throughout the rally – where we are and what speed we are doing. So when our sponsors can’t get to the stage, they can see us move through it on the screen instead.”

The Ulster International Rally starts on Friday 22 August, based in the Armagh City Hotel, where the FX Motor Sports squad will be available to chat to and sign autographs throughout the event.

Read David's fourth column on crash.net

David's fourth column went online on crash.net today.

In it he talks about being honoured in China, becoming a wedding chauffeur for the day, and expanding FX Motor Sports.

To read the column click here