Former British Rally champion David Higgins has set off on his travels again for the third round of the 2009 Chinese Rally Championship, the Fogang Rally.

The event is based in the Guangdong region and is yet another completely new event for the 2009 season.

“From what we have heard it will be a tough rally,” said Higgins, who has normal will be co-driven by Ieuan Thomas. “The stages are either fast, wide and bumpy, or narrow with drops on the side of the road. The plan is to get a good base set-up from the asphalt events we have done before and modify that for the different stages.

“There have been a lot of emails going back and forth between us and the engineers in China, but it's always hard when you've not actually seen the roads. We've always done well before on new events though, and you have to remember that it's a new event for the whole field, not just us.”

Higgins finished second in the opening round of the championship and won round two, which has helped to put the WY Rally Team at the top of the points' tables going into round three, joint top with the KST team.

With crews from all over the globe contesting the Chinese series this year, Higgins and Thomas will be joined by some more familiar faces on the Fogang.

“My brother Mark is doing the rally for the KST team,” David added. “He's one of the best asphalt drivers in the world, but we will need to take more points than him.

“There is also a rumour that Nial McShea will be doing the rally for another team in a new Subaru.”

The Fogang Rally takes place this coming weekend on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 of August.