David Higgins has hit out at the organisers of the recent International Rally Yorkshire after an 'extremely dangerous' moment on the third stage when he had to dodge a digger.
Higgins, who went into the event having switched from a Toyota Super 2000 to a Group N Subaru Impreza after 'parting company' with RED, eventually finished in third place overall, inheriting the final spot on the rostrum after Gwyndaf Evans had problems right at the end.
The 2004 British Rally champion conceded though that the incident on Gale Rigg 1, when he came over a crest and came across a digger in the middle of the road, definitely knocked his confidence and affected his pace for the rest of the event, the fifth round in the 2007 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.
"We were in the third stage driving at over 100 miles per hour," recounted the TQ.com backed man. "We came over a crest and it was just there in the stage driving towards us. The spikes on it were pointing at us.
"I'm not sure how we got past it safely - it was an extremely dangerous thing to have happen on a rally and could have ended disastrously.
"After that I lost my rhythm completely. You can't drive flat out over crests when you've just come over one and found something like that in your path, you wonder if you will meet anything else in the stage."
The 34-year-old had also lost on the opening stage, when like many of his rivals, he overshot a junction.
"Between that and the digger I overdrove for the rest of the rally trying to make up time and made mistakes. After all that it was fantastic to end up on the podium at the finish," he added.
David meanwhile has confirmed that he has still to decide what car he will use on the Wales Rally GB - the final round in the BRC, even though he and co-driver Ieuan Thomas enjoyed their outing with the Autotek Motorsport-run Impreza.
"The car's been fantastic. We are still in talks to secure a car for use on Rally GB which counts as two rounds of the BRC and we haven't ruled out using the Autotek car again," he continued.
"It was great to be involved with a WRC winning team. After doing the rally with them you can see why they won [with Nasser Al-Attiyah in the Production Car WRC in 2006]."
