by Rob Wilkins
TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL WITH MARK HIGGINS: CLICK HERE
Three-time British Rally champion, Mark Higgins re-took the lead in the race for the 2007 BRC title on the Ulster International Rally recently, the fourth round in the 2007 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.
Crash.net Radio caught up with the Stobart TEG Sport man last week to get his thoughts on that event and the remaining two rounds of the season - as well as his take on his campaign in the PWRC and the Irish Tarmac Championship...
Crash.net:
Mark, you recently won the British Rally Championship category on the Ulster Rally - your second BRC win of the season. How important was that result?
Mark Higgins:
It was really important. We had to turn things around because we have had a hard time with the Mitsubishis this year. Guy [Wilks] has obviously been very fast and so has Gwyndaf [Evans]. We just haven't really been able to match them, but TEG Sport did a lot of work on the car. We have increased the performance of the car quite a lot and for the first time we were actually able to take the fight to the Mitsubishis. It was a shame Guy didn't finish because it would have been nice to compare some more times against him, but we had a good battle with Gwyndaf and we came away with a good victory, which we really did need.
Crash.net
At the finish you beat Gwyndaf Evans by more than 30 seconds. That was quite a good margin…
MH:
It was - but we were having a real, real close battle. We were doing times to exactly the same tenth of a second. He would take a tenth and then I would take a couple of tenths back. We then had a really good run on the first stage on the second morning, which closed the gap to within 3 seconds and he then made a mistake on the next one, which cost him another 30 seconds. I think my lead at the end was 45 seconds, as we managed to take a bit more out of him, but it was very, very close.
Crash.net:
The Mitsubishi Lancer seems to have been faster than the Impreza this year in the BRC, although not as reliable. Is reliability your ace card?
MH:
It has been, but the way the championship works this year it is very difficult, as you drop two scores from seven. Although we have got a good lead then and it looks quite promising at the moment, we still really need to have two wins because if Guy goes out and wins the next two and gets a second or whatever, he has actually won the championship. As such it is all very much to play for. Gwyndaf could still win the championship too if he gets three wins from now on. So although reliability is very important - and it is looking at the leaderboard at the moment - when it comes to it at the final round it could all change around very quickly.
Crash.net:
Your victory on the Ulster moved you to the top of the standings - you now have a 3 point lead over your Stobart TEG Sport team-mate, Wyn Humphries. How confident are you feeling about successfully defending your BRC crown, because with the dropped scores, as you mentioned a moment ago, it makes it quite complicated doesn't it?
