Three time British Rally Champion Mark Higgins will make his debut in the 2009 Porsche Carrera Cup GB in the final two races of the season at Brands Hatch this weekend, after being invited to race the VIP car from Porsche Motorsport.

However, it will be a challenging weekend for the Powys-based driver, as he is already committed to competing on the Colin McRae Stages in Scotland on Saturday.

Higgins will take part in official testing at Brands on Friday, then fly to Scotland for the rally before flying back on Saturday evening in time for the pair of Carrera Cup races on Sunday. In the process, he will miss official qualifying and so will start both races from the back of the grid.

"I'm really excited about racing the Porsche," said Higgins, who narrowly missed a fourth British title after crashing out of the final round on Saturday, the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire.

"I started off in karting and I've kept up an international race licence, but I've not had a chance to do much racing recently," he said. "I'll drive anything and the Porsches are great cars; this is the high end of the sport and it is going to be a really interesting experience."

His most recent regular racing was in 1999 when he contested the VW Beetle Cup in Germany.

Higgins, who is competing in an ex-Carlos Sainz Subaru Impreza on Saturday, was due to have a shakedown run in the 911GT3 Cup car on Wednesday before going into testing on Friday.

He will also need to learn the Brands Hatch GP circuit on Friday, as he has never driven on the full circuit at the Kent venue before.