by Geoff Mayes
On a day when a top 15 position would have been good enough for the title, Mark Higgins put in a controlled drive for the first half of the rally before piling on the pressure to chase eventual rally winner Ryan Champion all the way to the end of a fiercely fought International Rally of Yorkshire.
With a compact one day format for 2006 plus the anticipation of some top class local heroes the penultimate round of the 2006 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship was guaranteed to be a fiercely fought battle right from the word go.
Former double British Champion and local hero Jonny Milner was quickest out of the blocks to lead after the first ‘spectator’ stage but with everyone conscious that the rally would be won or lost in the forests all eyes were on the clocks at the end of the opening 9 mile run through Cropton. And once more Milner went quickest, stopping the clocks exactly 1 second faster than the similar Mitsubishi Evo IX of the Welsh wizard Gwyndaf Evans with works Mitsubishi driver Ryan Champion a further 0.6 seconds further back.
Gwyndaf, another former champion, fought back on Gale Rigg, going nearly 2 seconds quicker than Milner with Champion once more third fastest. Defending champion Mark Higgins was just driving with one hand on the title so far, but even so he was lying fourth overall after three stages, and best of the Subaru’s.
The 10 mile run through Langdale saw Ryan Champion and Jonny Milner set equal fastest time with Higgins and Evans less than a second further back, however Higgins was concerned about a loose engine mount on his Subaru.
Stage 6, Dalby Forest, was the longest of the entire rally at 18 miles in length and a hard charging Gwyndaf Evans went quickest on this tricky stage, but by only just over a second from the 2005 Evo Challenge winner Ryan Champion. Showing how close the competition was Jonny Milner was again third fastest, a further 1.2 seconds further back.
