It's always important to try to make the most of any time in a rally environment and, Tony Higgins, David's father and FX Motor Sports team member, has been great at helping me in many ways from giving advice about the car and the events, to making sure I practice changing tyres if I have some spare time in the service area. It's great having someone with plenty of experience to turn to on an event when I can't pick David's brain. Its no wonder the Higgins brothers are so successful.
It is the same story with Tim, my co-driver. Tim has been rallying since before I was even born, making him a vastly ‘experienced' man. In my first year in a proper team, making pace notes and tackling international events, I am very glad I have someone sitting next to me who can use their experience to aid my development, along with educating me on ‘classic' rock songs.
The day after the
Jim Clark, Tim and I joined David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas for the opening round of the Chinese Rally Championship, the Shanghai International Rally.
Again on tarmac, I was thrown into the deep end. Not only was it my first event outside of the UK, it was my first event in the WY Mitsubishi Evo 9 and only my third ever international classed event. However spare a thought for Tim, who had to navigate me using a road book written completely in Chinese - all those evenings reading take away menus were finally going to pay off!
After a few days to get over the jetlag, food and the 34 degrees temperature - I don't think I ever got over the food - Tim, myself and the other 70 competing crews got our heads down to prepare for the event. After a successful recce and ceremonial start, the event began on Saturday morning and finished on Sunday afternoon.
We had a solid start to the event, with the times getting better and better as the rally went on. We didn't have anything to do other than learn and it was a great place to do it. The heat was amazing and without the fitness training and help from David and the MSA British Rally Academy I would have found it much harder.
