From there it was back to the BRC. To date we had enjoyed third place finishes on the Pirelli and the Jim Clark, and we know that good finishes are going to be the key to the championship this year.
Next was Rally Isle of Man and I actually got a day off on the island before the rally - well, sort of…
We went over to the island earlier than planned this year for the wedding of former
Motorsport News journalist Jo Holland and Mini driver Neil Burgess. I know Jo well, and she had asked me earlier this year if I would drive her to the wedding if she got married on the island before the rally, so a plan was hatched. I drove her from Douglas to Castle Rushen in Castletown in one of our BRC Subaru Impreza N14s, we even put her married name 'Burgess' on the back windows of the car as a surprise. It was great fun, and she had no worries about getting dirt on her dress, she seemed more excited about finally getting a run in one of the TQ.com cars!
Wedding over, it was back to business as we continued the recce the next day. I always enjoy going to Rally Isle of Man because I was born on the island and still have a lot of family and friends over there. It probably felt even better this year to bring FX Motor Sports to the island for the first time.
Although it's the BRC event I probably have least experience of, the roads are amazing to drive and the atmosphere on that event is always really good.
We came away with third place points again, but more importantly we came away from the island still leading the British championship. My brother Mark has moved up to second place behind me after winning the event, we both love to win and we would both love to be leading the championship points, so it should make the next round in Ulster interesting.
We had a few problems during the event as we continue to develop the new car, but the team performed well. The TQ.com team was the only team to get both cars home without using the SupeRally rules, which is a credit to FX Motor Sports in our first year in the championship.
I did wish we could have had more speed to chase Mark and Guy [Wilks] on the island though. Although we took third by a large margin, we were quite a bit behind those two. But that's what can happen when you are developing a new car, and we have taken on board what we did learn on the island and done a lot of work since then to progress things for the Ulster Rally later this month.
We're not just working on Ulster at the moment either. Just two weeks after we compete there Ieuan and I will be heading back over to China for the second round of the Chinese championship.
We've also been looking at enquiries from a lot of drivers who would like FX Motor Sports to run them in the future, which is a testament to how well the team have worked and impressed people this year in the BRC. We may add some new drivers to the FX fold as soon as the Ulster Rally, as we are trying to put a deal together for Fiesta ST driver James Everard to join our junior team on the event. So, as usual, it's a busy few weeks ahead of us - but as usual we're looking forward to getting out and competing.
It would be amazing to win every round in China again this year, and regain the British title - and that's still our plan.
David
For more information on David Higgins visit his personal website:
http://davidhigginsrally.com/ or simply
CLICK HERE.
