In the fourth of an exclusive series of columns for Crash.net, former British rally champion David Higgins talks about being honoured in China, becoming a wedding chauffeur for the day ahead of the Rally Isle of Man, and expanding FX Motor Sports.
Quite a lot has happened since I last wrote. We’ve been to China, relived the old days of the RAC Rally at Chatsworth, and completed another round of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship - and it’s all proved very successful.
The first event was the Shanghai Rally, and it felt really good to get back into competing in China again. As you know, we won every round of the Chinese championship last year, but we took the fifth of those five wins right back in November, six months before our trip back to Shanghai!
The Chinese championship calendar has changed quite a bit this year because of the Olympics being held in Beijing this year, that’s why the season has started so late there.
It turned out to be an emotional trip. Not long before we went to China, the earthquake happened. So although we were happy to win, there were no celebrations on the podium. You couldn’t help but think about what had happened while you were there, and we had several small aftershocks in the area where the team were staying for the rally too.
We had an extra surprise at the awards dinner though. As well as my co-driver Ieuan and I receiving awards for winning the rally, I was also presented with a special award called ‘the honour of China’. I was told it was in recognition of winning so many events in the country last year, and because of some charity work we do when we go out there. It was a huge honour to be thought of that way by the people of the country, and was a huge surprise.
