In the second of an exclusive series of columns for Crash.net, former British rally champion David Higgins talks about FX Motor Sport's three-car debut on the Pirelli International Rally and how they are looking forward to unleashing their cars on asphalt.


Well all the hard work we did setting up the team over the winter paid off on the Pirelli when we took two podium finishes. Sadly mine was for third overall instead of first, but I'm confident the best is yet to come because the Pirelli was our first competitive outing in the new Subaru Impreza N14s so it was as much of a learning process as it was a rally for us.

Sure, we tested well before the event, but no matter how much testing you do, it's not until you're going full whack down a rally stage to pacenotes that you realise exactly what your car's capable of.

The two Mitsubishis pushed hard on the event, with Guy [Wilks] winning. But we won our fight with Phillip Morrow for third, and those points, together with points Hugh [Evans] took have left the TQ.com team second in the teams' championship.

It's amazing to think that this is only Hugh's second year in the championship. He is a sponsor who loves the sport as much as me and is so enthusiastic you would think he had been competing for a lot longer. He had a small off on the Pirelli, had it not been for that who knows how high he would have finished.

Everyone said they thought our new FX Motor Sports area looked great in the service park which is a credit to all the hard work everyone on the new team has put in. And running the cars ourselves was a great experience for myself and Hugh as well.

When you've put the team together yourselves you have complete faith in them and how they work because you've picked the best team possible. You know they will do everything in their power to help you get as many championship points as possible because they want it as much as you and everyone worked brilliantly together in the service park.

The FX junior driver Nick Rowland also took a podium finish, second in the new Suzuki Swift Sport Cup. His rally had got off to a bad start with him having to use Superally rules to finish, making second place even more satisfying.

I might have left with third place points instead of the win, but that doesn't leave us that far behind Guy and it's early days in the championship - and you've got to remember that Juho Hanninen lies second, and Rally GB is the only other event he plans to do this year in the BRC calendar. It was great to have him on the Pirelli though, it's always good to be able to rally against foreign drivers with experience in the PWRC like him. I usually have to wait until the end of the year to experience that on Rally GB.