Higgins Smashes Mt Washington record

The course record at the Mt. Washington Hillclimb, one of Americas oldest auto races, was smashed today in convincing fashion by professional rally driver David Higgins at the wheel of a Vermont SportsCar prepared 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Higgins, from the Isle of Man, broke the course record, which stood for thirteen years, by over thirty seconds at the revived ‘Climb to the Clouds’, which was last held in 2001. The new time to beat to the summit of the 7.6 mile sinuous asphalt and gravel Mt. Washington Auto Rd. is 6 minutes and 11.54 seconds, nearly thirty seconds faster than the outgoing record. The Climb to the Clouds featured nearly seventy competitors driving an eclectic mix of modern rally cars, purpose built hillclimb cars and a small group of vintage racecars steeped in motorsports history.

Weather conditions had been less than ideal throughout the two practice days on Friday and Saturday, with intermittent rain showers that blanketed the Auto Road in clouds. The weather kept the competitors from having a chance to practice on the upper half of the course thus adding to the challenge. On Sunday however the weather cleared and two full course timed runs were held, although dense fog engulfed the summit for parts of the day.

Higgins was the last driver to launch off the start line which helped to build the anticipation of a possible record breaking run amongst the fans in attendance. Higgins set a blistering pace on his first run, breaking the record by over twenty seconds, but had even more speed on tap on his second run where he lowered his new record by a further eight seconds. The previous record of 6 minutes and 41.99 seconds was set by Mt. Washington Hillclimb ace Frank Sprongl in 1998.

Craigs STPR

What a great event STPR 2011 turned out to be for David and myself, and the Subaru USA Team. Our third win on the trot has put us in a great position going into the sixth and final round of the Championship in New England, but we both know we still need a good final result to secure the Championship.
The week started with a trip to Vermont to catch up with some of the guys at the workshop that we don’t get to see very often. We massively appreciate the effort that has gone into getting both the new rally cars and the rally cross cars ready for this season, and although we can thank the guys who come to the events with us for their hard work, we rarely get a chance to thanks the unsung heroes who stay at team HQ. We also used this time to do some technical familiarization with the new car. It is fair to say that David is very much the mechanically-minded one, but I try to help where I can!
On Wednesday we travelled down to Wellsboro, Pennsylvania which was a 7 hour drive, picking our recce car up en route. The Thursday recce was very tough. Even though it was only a 1-pass recce, it was done in a convoy system which seemed to be stationary more than it was moving. We did 10 stages of recce in 11 hours! Nevertheless, we made some good notes for the stages and finished the day with a short shakedown, just to make sure the car was working properly and get into the groove.
David and I woke up early on Friday to go through our recce in-car video and check and make any alterations to our notes. This is crucial after a 1-pass recce, because it is easy to make a mistake or miss something first time around. It was then off to Wellsboro for Parc Expose and get ready for the event.
The rally started with a very tough stage called Waste management, which is probably the twistiest stage we have done in the Championship this year. Our pace was good but we also had to remember that this was the fourth or fifth time many of our competitors had done virtually all of these stages, and so as this was our first time we would always be at a slight disadvantage. A good run over the next few stages saw us finish day 1 in second place, 14 seconds down on the leaders. Unfortunately this was after Stage 2 times were scrubbed due to a start-marshal error, where we were actually quickest by 5 seconds.
The Saturday stages were much quicker than Friday, and we found a good rhythm straight away and began clawing time back on first place, which we moved in to after SS7. However, on SS8 disaster struck. About half a mile into the stage, the intercom cut out. POP! As the back-up intercom was also part of the same unit, we had no option but to continue down the stage with me shouting and using hand signals! This started as a number-based system, but ended with the more frantically I waved my hand, the tighter the next corner was!
We managed to revert to our transit intercom for SS9 and were having a good stage until we got a rear-left puncture after landing from a jump. This was looking like it was definitely not our event!
With the puncture changed and the intercom fixed, we knew we only had 4 stages left to go. We were 37 seconds behind with only one option – GO FOR IT! I knew I was in for a good ride over the remaining 4 stages after the first corner of SS10 – a slippery 6th gear corner which David didn’t even hesitate on. We were on the attack. Over the next 3 stages, we cut L’Estage’s lead down to 10 seconds with only the long final proper stage to go followed by the short superspecial stage. SS14 was all or nothing, and we put the pedal to the metal to win the stage by 12 seconds and now lead by 2.5 seconds going into the superspecial stage!!
I was extremely nervous heading into the 0.6 mile superspecial, as it is a cruel place to win or lose a rally. After our run, I couldn’t watch as L’Estage attacked the stage. Have we done enough, or had he stole victory from us at the very last moment? Then came through the news – he had beaten our time but only by 1.2 seconds which meant we had won overall by 1.3 seconds!
This was one of my most special wins because it showed true character. We were both bitterly disappointed when we lost all the time with intercom problems and a puncture, but we dug deep and never gave up. It was an honor to sit next to a driver of David’s caliber when he is on full attack mode, and a feeling that I will never get bored of! Onwards to New England!

STPR RALLY

David Higgins Wins Dramatic STPR by a Mere 1.3 seconds!June 6th, 2011

Third victory in a row extends Higgins points lead in Rally America National Championship
(June 6, 2011) Subaru Rally Team USA driver David Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew have won the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR), round five of the 2011 Rally America National Championship, by a mere 1.3 seconds over rival Antoine L’Estage. Higgins and L’Estage battled back and forth throughout the event with Higgins staging a late rally comeback that saw him take the rally lead on the penultimate stage after overcoming a thirty-seven second deficit midway through the final day of action. The amazingly close finish came after over 120 stage miles spanning two days of competition on high-speed forest roads of north-central Pennsylvania. The win at STPR is Higgins’ third victory in a row in the series and extends his points lead in the Rally America National Championship standings heading into the sixth and final round next month, the New England Forest Rally.

Higgins’ Subaru teammate Dave Mirra with co-driver Marshall Clarke finished 5th overall after staging his own comeback by working his way up the leaderboard from a 12th overall position after giving up nearly eleven minutes due to a pivotal pace notes error. Mirra’s Subaru STI sustained damage from the resulting accident but remained mechanically sound, and Mirra was able to continue and impressively work his way up the field for a valuable points finish.

The battle between Higgins, a winner at STPR in 2002 and 2003, and Antoine L’Estage, the defending Rally America Champion and 2010 STPR winner, was exceptional. L’Estage struck first and grabbed a 14 second lead after a short first day of competition. Higgins then battled back early on day-two and took a slight lead before dropping time when his in-car intercom with co-driver Craig Drew failed while on-stage forcing Higgins to slow down while they used an improvised hand signal system.

“With no intercom it was very challenging, Craig (Drew) would be waving signals to me but it was hard to see his hands and to know what exactly he was trying to tell me,” explained Higgins. “In the end I worked out that when he was waving like crazy I needed to slow down!”

Higgins was then hampered by a tire puncture in-stage that slowed him further, leaving him thirty-seven seconds adrift of L’Estage with just four forest stages and one short Super Special Stage remaining. Higgins then pushed his Subaru STI to the limit and began to catch L’Estage on the final loop of stages. In a nail biting comeback Higgins eventually overtook L’Estage on the penultimate stage and took a 2.5 second lead into the final Super Special Stage where he held off L’Estage’s final charge to win by a mere 1.3 seconds.

“It was a fantastic battle with Antoine and (co-driver) Nathalie (Richard). It’s always great to win a close fight so think I will remember this for some time,” said Higgins at the podium celebration. All of STPR’s competition stages were won by either Higgins or L’Estage, with Higgins fastest on seven stages and L’Estage six.

STPR is round five of the six-round Rally America Championship and is based in Wellsboro, PA. STPR features some of the fastest roads in the series with many technical sections with trees closely lining the roads. Severe dust caused visibility issues until approximately midway on day-two, when heavy rains in the area challenged teams with slippery roads.

Subaru Rally Team USA is proudly supported by Subaru of America, Inc., Subaru Tecnica International (STI), Subaru Performance Tuning (SPT), BFGoodrich Tires, RECARO, Vision X, Alpinestars, Motul, Exedy, VP Fuels and Vermont SportsCar. For more information on Subaru Rally Team USA, as well as exclusive photo and video galleries visit subaru.com/rally and for the latest news follow the team on Twitter: twitter.com/srtusa.

STPR Rally

Craig and I came out on Monday for STPR rally, we are spending a couple of days at the Vermont Sportcar workshop getting to know more about the car, it is also a great chance to catch up with some of the the team that cant make it to the events.

STPR is looking like it will be a tough event as they have had some very bad storms over the last few weeks, its also getting very hot there now so either way its looking like a good challenge.

I have done the rally twice before and was lucky enough to win both times, some of the stages will be the same although 2003 was the last time so dont think I will remember that much.

Its been great to have two weeks at home to get back into training and spend some time with the family and catch up at the www.higginsrallyschool.com. Its also good fun to have chance to read some of the other drivers press releases after there events, some times wonder if we were on same event.

Will have some news soon on some events later in the year.