Round four, the Phillip White Tyres Ulster Rally, sees the championship contenders cross the Irish Sea for the third and final tarmac round and after a relatively poor performance here last year for Higgins the others will be hoping to get one up on the Manx man.
Joining the fray for this epic battle will be 2004 Production Car World champion Niall McShea who will be hoping to use his local knowledge to his advantage. Another Irish lad with a point to prove is Kris Meeke. Meeke, a regular in the Junior World Rally Championship, was relishing the chance to go head to head against his great rival Guy Wilks. Meeke won the recent JWRC Rally Germany, whilst Wilks was victorious a week later on the JWRC Finland, but after failing to secure a deal to run a Suzuki Swift on the event Wilks will be one of a number of absentees.
Another BRC regular to skip this round is Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach. Despite lying second in the standings Rautenbach is competing in Africa on the same weekend.
The 2006 Philip White Tyres Ulster Rally runs over the weekend of September 1-2 and comprises 15 stages totalling 125 stage miles. With local knowledge an all important requirement, as is understanding the weather system for the area, brave gambles on set up and tyres could be the winning ingredient, however get it wrong and it could spell disaster.
Either way championship leader Higgins is convinced that the competition will be a lot closer this weekend: "So far the season has gone really well for me, but the others have also experienced a fair bit of bad luck. I’m sure that the Ulster won’t be a walk in the park and it’s going to be a fine line between pushing hard enough to be there or there abouts and pushing too hard and going off!"
The 125 mile 2006 Philip White Tyres Ulster rally begins from Armagh at 3pm on Friday September 1, with the first car expected at the finish at around 5:30pm on Saturday afternoon.
