by Geoff Mayes


On a day when a top 15 position would have been good enough for the title, Mark Higgins put in a controlled drive for the first half of the rally before piling on the pressure to chase eventual rally winner Ryan Champion all the way to the end of a fiercely fought International Rally of Yorkshire.

With a compact one day format for 2006 plus the anticipation of some top class local heroes the penultimate round of the 2006 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship was guaranteed to be a fiercely fought battle right from the word go.

Former double British Champion and local hero Jonny Milner was quickest out of the blocks to lead after the first 'spectator' stage but with everyone conscious that the rally would be won or lost in the forests all eyes were on the clocks at the end of the opening 9 mile run through Cropton. And once more Milner went quickest, stopping the clocks exactly 1 second faster than the similar Mitsubishi Evo IX of the Welsh wizard Gwyndaf Evans with works Mitsubishi driver Ryan Champion a further 0.6 seconds further back.

Gwyndaf, another former champion, fought back on Gale Rigg, going nearly 2 seconds quicker than Milner with Champion once more third fastest. Defending champion Mark Higgins was just driving with one hand on the title so far, but even so he was lying fourth overall after three stages, and best of the Subaru's.

The 10 mile run through Langdale saw Ryan Champion and Jonny Milner set equal fastest time with Higgins and Evans less than a second further back, however Higgins was concerned about a loose engine mount on his Subaru.

Stage 6, Dalby Forest, was the longest of the entire rally at 18 miles in length and a hard charging Gwyndaf Evans went quickest on this tricky stage, but by only just over a second from the 2005 Evo Challenge winner Ryan Champion. Showing how close the competition was Jonny Milner was again third fastest, a further 1.2 seconds further back.

As the cars returned to mid-day service local boy Jonny Milner held a slender 0.9 second lead over Ryan Champion with Mark Higgins in third position. Further back Conrad Rautenbach, Phil Morrow and Guy Wilks were embroiled in a three way fight for the Junior Cup whilst Guy also held a commanding lead in the S1600 category after Roman Kresta had retired with engine maladies, leaving young guns Barry Clark and James Wozencroft to fight over second in class.

With his engine mountings tightened up champion elect Mark Higgins went on a bit of a charge going quickest through the second running of Cropton, Gale Rigg and High Moor. At the same time Ryan Champion had gradually overhauled Jonny Milner and it was now Champion leading, but Higgins had closed the gap down to a mere 4 seconds with 2 stages still to go. Although Milner was still third he had the Hankook shod Mitsubishi of Gwyndaf Evans breathing down his neck but things very nearly went horribly wrong for Gwyndaf on Stage 11, Langdale 2. An overly ambitious attempt to make up time over a crest had resulted in the Mitsubishi punching a hole in a hedge and it cost him a fair bit of time rejoining the track! The crew were also concerned that the car was now down on power but discovered that that was because the airbox was full of bracken.

His team mate, Stuart Jones, had earlier retired when the brake calliper had collapsed, seizing the wheel and ending the young Welshman's strong drive.