by Rob Wilkins


TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL WITH DAVID HIGGINS: CLICK HERE


2004 British Rally champion, David Higgins hasn't had much luck this year in the 2007 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship. Crash.net Radio caught up with David last week to chat about that and his campaign in the Chinese Rally Championship, before he departed for the latest event in the CRC, the Kaiyang Rally, which took place at the weekend [August 4/5]...




Crash.net:
David, following the recent Rally Isle of Man we are now halfway through the BRC season. What are your thoughts on your season thus far?

David Higgins:
To be honest it has been a little bit disappointing really. The first rally obviously started badly with the car having a problem on the way to the start and we were OTL (over the time limit) before we started. But we still showed really good stage times.

Then we went to the Jim Clark and we were really excited about everything. We were hoping it was all going to be really good on tarmac. We were a little bit of a long way away on set-up and we had an engine overheating problem, which hampered us a little bit, although in the end we did come away with a good result. We took second place in the BRC behind my brother Mark.

The Manx [most recently] was a fairly big disaster. We had a few issues on the car and we have since found out it was a difference in diameter on the control tyre - that caused a few issues. We were chasing problems with the car and to be honest we really messed the set-up up. Then we again suffered with overheating problems, which resulted in our retirement.

So a lot of potential, but some disappointment really, which I suppose is the best way to describe it.

Crash.net:
You had good pace on the Isle of Man, your home event, and set three fastest stage times in the BRC. Third looked to be in the bag until right near the end, how frustrating was that?

DH:
We knew we had an issue with the engine on the rally and we were trying to protect it when we could. When it was wet then obviously the engine temperature was a lot lower and we were able to push hard and that was what resulted in our three fastest times. But then it dried out and we looked at the car overnight and realised the problem was getting worse.

The plan for the final day was to try and nurse it and to take some revs off the car. Unfortunately though two stages from the end it had had enough. The temperatures in the car had got to like 178 degrees and believe it or not it was still running at that temperature!

But it then got to a point where it was not possible to make it any further really. It is a big disappointment.

Crash.net: