Galligan responded by going quicker through the next two stages, taking 5 seconds back. Stage 19, the fourth running through Langton saw Mark Higgins go quickest from Galligan with double champion Jonny Milner, currently having a conservative run just inside the top 10, going third quickest in the stage.
Higgins went quickest once more through the penultimate stage meaning that 4.1 seconds separated Rory Galligans Mitsubishi Evo IX from Mark Higgins Subaru Impreza N12. Incredibly Higgins went 11 seconds faster through the final stage on his second run, stopping the clocks exactly 4.1 seconds faster than Galligan meaning the pair returned to Kelso tied on overall stage times after 140 miles of rallying.
Due to a tie breaker ruling that the winner would be whoever had gone quicker through the opening stage this meant that Mark Higgins was classified as the winner of the 2006
Jim Clark International Rally.
"Rory drove a brilliant rally this weekend and to be honest I drove as fast as I could over the last couple of stages. My commiserations to Rory as its never nice to loose out on a tie breaker but I am dead chuffed to get this win after the misfortunes I had on the last day of the Pirelli," said Mark.
Third overall went to the Pirelli Rally winner Ryan Champion who, considering his relative lack of tarmac experience was dead pleased with how his rally had gone. Fourth was Guy Wilks, who had shown that the S1600 cars can be competitive.
"It's been a good fight against the GpN cars. We top out at about 110mph where they have about 125mph to play with so you can see where they make the time up, especially with all these long straights," said Wilks.
