Mark Higgins has secured his first win of the British Rally Championship season after taking victory on the Jim Clark Internatinal Rally.

Although sixth overall behind five WRC cars contesting the Scottish event, Higgins was able to hold on for victory ahead of championship leader Keith Cronin despite a spirited fightback from the Mitsubishi man.

Cronin had lost the best part of two minutes with a puncture on Friday but battled back on the second day as Higgins was forced to deal with a car running intermittently on three cylinders and without an effective centre differential.

The gap was down to 2.6 seconds at the service before the final loop of four stages, where Pirelli TEG Sport's temporary repair to the differential's electronics worked. It allowed Higgins to not only stop the haemorrhage of time, but take a handful of seconds back from Cronin who spun, adding to Higgins' advantage.

As the crews headed for the new Duns town centre stage, everyone held their breath, but only a catastrophe could have stopped Higgins, his title hopes rekindled by an eventual 11.4 second winning margin. Cronin still leads the BRC, but the gap is down to just two points with Higgins' home event - Rally Isle of Man – next on the calendar.

Adam Gould took third place ahead of Euan Thorburn, who earned the third place in the 2009 Pirelli Star Driver final with fourth on his home event. Alastair Fisher and Jonathan Greer completed the top six.

In the classes, Finnish duo Matti Rantanen and Mikko Markkula drove an excellent first complete tarmac event to win Rally 3 in their distinctive yellow Renault Clio. Their only problem was a power deficit to the similar car of Tom Walster, who took second despite early set-up problems.

Rally 2 and victory in the Citroën Racing Trophy went to Irishman Marty McCormack and co-driver Phil Clarke, taking a cheque for 3000 Euros for their troubles in the unmarked C2R2 Max. McCormack now leads the MSA British Junior Rally Championship too, Craig Breen retiring on Saturday. Their event went without incident, unlike runner up Jason Pritchard/Andrew Edwards who nearly didn't start after hitting a post in the pre-start car park.

Rally 1 and the Swift Sport Cup were won by another local driver, Gordon Nichol with co-driver Emma Morrison. Their opposition was decimated after all the other crews hit trouble, although only two retired. This did not detract from excellent stage times from the dominant Scot.