Mark Higgins has won the Pirelli International Rally, round two of the 2005 Kwik Fit Pirelli British Rally Championship.
Higgins beat his Stobart Motorsport team-mate, Paul Bird, by 1 minute 37.1 seconds, after winning 14 of the events 18 stages.
It wasn't all plain sailing though for Higgins and he had two scares during the event - losing over a minute with a puncture in SS4, which dropped him outside of the top ten and he had an off in SS9 when the heavens opened, handing the lead to Bird. Higgins though bounced back on both occasions and eventually pulled away to take the overall honours.
Rally of Wales' winner, Austin MacHale meanwhile was third, to keep his championship lead, with his son, Gareth, one spot behind in fourth, the two separated by less than 10 seconds.
In a gritty drive into fifth place was Seb Ling who had lost all hydraulic differential pressure in his Hyundai which meant that there was as much luck as skill required in keeping the beast on the road, especially in such slippery conditions!
In sixth place was the Production Cup winner, Tapio Laukkanen, driving a Group N Subaru Impreza. It was the Finn's first run out in a GrpN car for three years and he spent most of the early stages acclimatising and getting back up to speed, but he was handed two bits of luck. His rivals in the Mitsubishi team both struck trouble. Rory Galligan retired with a burnt out clutch when the gearbox seized in fourth gear, and when a similar problem afflicted team-mate David Higgins, Laukkanen seized the advantage.
Fortunately for Higgins he was closer to service than Galligan and he made it back in time to have repairs made, but he dropped behind the 'Flying Finn' to finish in seventh place overall.
After a cautious start with an unfamiliar machine, double British champion Jonny Milner finished eighth but wasn't feeling well at the start of the rally while co-driver Nicky Beech was also under the weather. Despite their maladies they were encouraged with their pace having missed out on last month's International Rally of Wales.
Rounding off the top ten, with yet another personal best, were Steve Petch and Lorna Smith. Petch finished third in the British Production Cup competition while Smith was fourth but scored sufficient points to put her into the Production class lead after two rounds - so that's one up for the girls!
Chris Davies finished top S1600 in 14th place, but only after some heroic work by the mechanics at midday service to change the rear dampers - and the new ones were a different fit, while Robbie Dale scored top Formula 2000 points in another Renault Clio in 16th place.
In total 20 cars were classified at the finish, 31 having started the event on Friday.
Among the 11 retirees, in addition to Galligan, was Gwyndaf Evans, who was giving the revised Ford Fiesta its debut in the BRC and Steve Perez.
The next event is the RSAC Scottish International Rally, which runs from June 10-11.
