by Geoff Mayes
After 122 miles of tricky tarmac rallying the 2006 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship had its third different winner in four events on Saturday and for the first time since the Pirelli International in May, Mark Higgins was not on the top step of the podium. However the Manx man does leave Ireland on the verge of clinching the title.
The 2006 Phillip White Tyres Ulster Rally was just as tricky and treacherous as everyone had anticipated, and even when expecting the unexpected the event still had the ability to surprise everyone.
After the opening stage was cancelled when one of the Irish contenders crashed out, the first chance the BRC cars had of going head to head was over the 8.8 miles of stage 2. Incredibly Kris Meeke topped the times in his Citroen S1600, going an amazing 16 seconds faster than the quickest registered driver. That driver was the Welsh Wizard, Gwyndaf Evans, who hustled his Hankook shod Mitsubishi Evo IX around the stage 0.9 of a second quicker than Mark Higgins in his Subaru Impreza N12, running on Pirelli tyres. 0.2 seconds further back was Pirelli Rally winner Ryan Champion, eager to make up for his Isle of Man indiscretion.
Higgins then fought back on Stage 3 to go 0.9 seconds faster than Evans with Rory Galligan in the second works Mitsubishi another 0.2 seconds slower. Ryan Champion then went quickest on the next stage, but again it was by less than a second from Evans. Mark Higgins dropped time over the bumpy sections, possibly a testament to a pre-event accident that affected the handling of his Subaru Impreza N12. Rory Galligan topped the times on the final stage of the day, with Mark Higgins just behind him, but Ryan Champions time was good enough to promote him into the overnight top spot, almost 2 seconds ahead of him team-mate Rory Galligan. A warped brake disc had cost Gwyndaf Evans time and had dropped him down to third at the overnight halt, just over a second ahead of Mark Higgins.
