by Geoff Mayes
Mark Higgins came out on top following a mammoth battle to take
both the BRC win and the overall victory on the Rally Isle of Man on Saturday, beating Eamonn Boland’s Subaru World Rally Car and his chief championship rival Guy Wilks.
After three days, 182 stage miles and 23 stages, Wilks had recorded 12 fastest stage times and another 10 second quickest runs, but crucially missing from that tally was one fateful stage that determined the outcome of the rally.
With the ‘works’ Mitsubishis recognised as being the class of the field, Mark Higgins knew he had to beat Wilks on this event to stand any chance of reclaiming his crown - and despite being in a three-year old Subaru Impreza, the triple BRC champion put in the drive of his life.
Wilks was fastest out of the blocks, winning the opening three stages, but then on the final run of the opening day, in atrocious weather, Higgins blasted past to take the stage by an outstanding 25 seconds.
In the dense fog on Friday morning Mark extended his lead on every stage and then Wilks made a mistake.
The first proper corner of SS8, St Runius, was a 90 left with a ditch on the outside. Running on cold tyres Guy under-steered off and smashed a wheel, forcing him to stop and change it. 3 minutes, and any chance of the overall victory, were lost.
Not content with just beating his Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship rivals though, Higgins also took the fight to, and beat, Irish Tarmac Rally champion elect Eamonn Boland in a 2007 spec Subaru Impreza World Rally Car.
Wilks meanwhile hadn’t given up and began to fight his way back up the leaderboard. After that fateful SS8, the former JWRC Suzuki driver was down in sixth position, some 2 minutes off the podium. But an amazing run of fastest stage times saw him overhaul David Higgins, who had been lying third, by the end of the opening stage on Saturday.
