It's about-turn in Ulster this weekend. Championship leader Mark Higgins was 'at home' last time out, this time it's Austin MacHale's turn to rally in front of a home crowd...
After the summer 'break' competitors in the Kwik-Fit Pirelli British Rally Championship resume their quest this weekend for the 'holy grail' of British rallying, the title of 2005 British Rally champion.
It's been five long weeks since competitors switched off their engines at the end of a record breaking Total Manx International Rally in July, and this weekend they face more tortuous tarmac in Northern Ireland for round six, the Philip White Tyres Ulster Rally.
With four maximum scores from five events so far, former British champion Mark Higgins is the hot favourite to lift his second British title. He scored a resounding victory on his 'home' event on the Isle of Man, but this weekend he is on Austin MacHale's 'home' turf in Ulster.
MacHale has faced troubled times this year with a Ford Focus reluctant to keep up with its pilot whilst Higgins' Ford Focus has behaved itself exemplarily – apart from the first round in Wales! If MacHale can regain reliability this weekend and with the benefit of a home crowd perhaps he can put his British title hopes back on track.
The rally is also a counter in the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Championship and as such has attracted a huge entry of top Irish stars including Andrew Nesbitt who missed the previous
Jim Clark Rally as he was still recovering from injuries received in a crash on the Donegal Rally earlier in the year.
Also re-appearing after injuries sustained in a crash earlier in the season is Matthew Wilson. The youngster finished third overall in last year's British Rally Championship in his debut season, but any hopes he had of improving on that this year disappeared rather abruptly and violently in a Welsh forest on the opening round of this season's campaign.
