In the first of an exclusive series of columns for Crash.net, former British rally champion David Higgins talks about his plans to reclaim the title, and how his area in the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship service park will be expanding this year.


As I write this column it's less than five weeks until the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship kicks off on the Pirelli International Rally next month. My last rally in Britain was Wales Rally GB back in December, but I can assure you I've certainly been keeping busy during the 'quiet period' of the rally season. In fact, it's been one of the busiest winter breaks ever.

The plan for this year is to contest the British and Chinese championships again, like last year.

In terms of the Chinese championship I've already been out there twice to do some tyre testing for Hankook, and to work on our Tein suspension and diff maps. We'll be driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 for the WY Rally Team again.

We should have already started the season out there actually, but because of the Olympics being held in China this year the calendar has had to be shuffled around quite a bit.

But when it does get started we've got a reputation to uphold - last year we won every round and nobody had ever done that before. It was a great feeling, most of the events went to plan and on the final round we were the top finishers in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge section of the event too.

In terms of the British championship, my relationship with TQ Education and Training continues to expand this year with the launch of FX Motor Sports. FX will run our cars in the British championship so we've been busy setting up a workshop and getting all of our trucks and trailers, and things like branded clothing, ready for the team over the break.

One of the best things about starting this team from scratch has been that we've been able to use my experience in motorsport to build the best team we can. I've worked with some great teams over the years, and I never forget the team members who have been the best to work with. I've also got a lot of knowledge of how other teams were run, so I can use that experience to make sure the FX team is run in the best way possible. I've also seen some teams run quite badly so I should know what not to do too.

The team principal and owner is Hugh Evans. Meeting Hugh has been fantastic. He not only supports us financially, but has also become a great team-mate in the British championship. Last year was his first in the championship, having only competed in single venue or road rallies before and he relished the challenge, and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

This year Hugh will continue to compete. We will both drive Subaru Impreza N14s which will arrive with us at the end of the month to give us time for some testing in April, before the Pirelli.