In another of his exclusive series of columns for Crash.net, former British Rally champion David Higgins talks about his son Matthew, his protégé Luke, and this year's BRC...
When I last wrote I was heading out to China for the Huairou Rally - what an event! The day we travelled out to the event my son Matthew was taken into hospital with pneumonia. As you can imagine it was very difficult to hear that news when I was so far away in China. I wanted to come home, but my wife Kara encouraged me as usual, telling me to stay and do the rally. Without her support we would not have competed and I cannot thank her enough for that.
Thankfully Matthew made a full recovery and was soon out of hospital. In the meantime my co-driver Ieuan Thomas and I both got food poisoning out in China! Can you believe it! We both felt dreadful during the rally, we were constantly throwing up - sorry if you're about to eat while you read this! - and we didn't get much sleep either. I think all of this combined to make us both determined to win the event – and despite the rear diff seizing and an overshoot, we did. Going into the final stage we were second by 6.7 seconds, but we pushed on to win by 3.6 seconds.
We're off back to China again now. You can read more about that on the news page of
www.crash.net. It's another new rally this time, the asphalt Fogang Rally in Guangdong. New rallies bring new experiences and challenges into the championship in China and that's good for all of us. There will be a few more Brits out there this time too, there are rumours Nial McShea will be going, and my brother Mark is going too.
Although I'm not rallying in the UK this year, I am still karting a lot. As most of you know, I think karting provides a great grounding in the sport for children who are interesting in a career in rallying, and it keeps you sharp once you make the transition to being a rally driver too. With that in mind I've announced plans to contest the 2010 Super One championship myself.
While it will be a great experience for me, I'm also doing it to encourage my protégé Luke Hughes. I've worked with Luke for a number of years now and he is both a very talented driver and, more importantly, a great kid with very good manners. This is important to me because it's not just all about having the money to go karting, to do well you need to have the right attitude too.
He races hard and gives great feedback on what the kart is doing, it's these points which make me think he can make it to the top of any sport he does in the future. Luke has also been a great help to me this year, he knows the tracks and helps me with the right lines to take.
My son Matthew has also taken to the tracks recently. Showing no signs of how ill he was with pneumonia, he tested a bambino Arrow kart at Glan Y Gors a few weeks ago and did fantastically well. He's still only four years old! My daughter Alicia is also keen on the sport, she is awaiting the arrival of an Arrow cadet kart of her own.
Even though I'm not competing, I'm keeping an eye on the MSA British Rally Championship this year. It's great to see some new names on the entry lists but it's a shame Mark and Keith Cronin are running away with it all at the front instead of there being a battle between a few more drivers.
