by Geoff Mayes
As the 2006 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship enters the second half of one of the most exciting seasons experienced in quite a while, the big question on most people's minds is: 'Can Mark Higgins be beaten?'
With second overall in the opening round, followed up by two wins Higgins now holds a commanding 33 point lead in the championship, but with the season only half over there are still a number of top drivers capable of taking the fight to the defending champion.
After the opening two rounds, the Pirelli International and the
Jim Clark respectively, threw up two extremely close battles - with the Jim Clark victory being decided by a tie break after Higgins and Rory Galligan tied on stage times! - the recent Rally Isle of Man was a bit of a walk over for local man Higgins.
With the weather being characteristically fickle and with a number of potential challengers struggling to stay on the road, let alone with all four wheels planted on the black stuff Higgins was able to romp away with relative easy to his second victory of the season.
Star drive of the event must surely go to Guy Wilks who, in an ageing Suzuki Ignis S1600 overcame the atrocious conditions to finish second, taking a couple of stage wins along the way.
Recovering from numerous set backs was double British champion Jonny Milner and third place was a fine reward for his perseverance. As he was also top Mitsubishi driver at the finish this also elevates Milner into the lead of the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge.
By contrast the majority of the Mitsubishi drivers had a weekend they would rather forget. Both works cars, driven by Rory Galligan and Ryan Champion, were caught out in the atrocious conditions, as were Stuart Jones, Stephen Petch Junior and a fair few other drivers. Fortunately, despite some pretty big crashes resulting in badly damaged cars, all crews escaped unharmed - however the dents in budgets might be more apparent later in the season.
