by Geoff Mayes


In 2007 Mark Higgins won the Ulster Rally after championship rival Guy Wilks suffered mechanical gremlins, but this year Higgins, a multiple national champion, seems to have the upper hand, both mentally and mechanically as he won as he pleased, whilst Wilks recovered from a self inflicted off to take the runner up spot for the second rally in a row.

The 2008 Todd's Leap Ulster Rally will be remembered for a long time, more for the politics surrounding the event rather than the slick and smooth running of the actual rally. First there was the sensational firing of local rallying hero Phillip Morrow by the works Mitsubishi team immediately after the Rally Isle of Man. The team then went and signed former champion Gwyndaf Evans to fill the vacant seat in the second Evo 9 alongside reigning champ Wilks. The Atlas TEG sport team, who run Mark Higgins, saw an opportunity and quickly signed the talented Morrow to drive a third car for the team. This was then to turn out to be an incredible stroke of good luck as the team's young gun, Wyn Humphries, who briefly led the championship in 2007, had the misfortune of having his car stolen on the morning of the rally!

All this and the rally had not even begun yet! When the 2008 Todd's Leap Ulster Rally final got under way at 3pm on Friday afternoon it looked set to be one of the most competitive rallies for a while. Revelling in the dry conditions Wilks opened his account with the fastest time through the opening stage. But Higgins was less than a second further back. Despite not competing since last years Wales Rally GB Gwyndaf Evans was happy to be third fastest, just over half a second faster than his former team mate Stuart Jones.

Stage 2, named after the event sponsors, Todd's Leap, has a sequence of notorious bumps half way along. You can take these flat if your car is set up perfectly. But young star of the season James Wozencroft discovered that they can not be taken flat if you have a puncture, with a massive 100+ mph roll as the result. This was poor reward for the former Super 1600 champion, whose appearance on the rally had been rescued at the last minute by insurance company Competition Car Insurance. Talk about cruel irony! Although both James and co-driver Chris Ridge were given the all clear, their Subaru Impreza was destroyed. The accident also caused the stage to be cancelled.

Another fastest time for Wilks through the third stage saw the Mitsubishi pilot return to first service with an 8 second cushion over Higgins as night fell on the crews. On the second run through Ivy Hill, Higgins set an identical time to his first run, but more importantly, was 2 seconds faster than Wilks. Guy then suffered differential problems on the re-run of Todd's Leap, dropping nearly 30 seconds to the Subaru pilot. More time was lost on the final stage of the evening and as the cars entered Parc Ferme for the overnight halt it was Higgins with a 40 second advantage. Third was an impressive Evans with young Darren Gass, the reigning Pirelli star driver, next.

Saturday morning dawned bright but with the promise of rain later on. Guy Wilks flew through the opening stage, a whole 8 seconds faster than Mark Higgins, but then had an off road excursion in the second stage of the day and dropped a further 34 seconds to Higgins. This stage also saw young Stuart Jones rally hopes dashed as the engine in his MG Super 2000 cried enough. A good time for Morrow, who was adjusting to a Subaru for the first time in his life, was a sign that there were better things still to come.

With Wilks now over a minute behind Higgins, and with the weather turning worse, the fight for the lead was pretty much over and whilst the pair traded fastest stage times throughout the rest of the day Higgins eventually returned to Armagh with an advantage of 62 seconds to take his third tarmac victory of the year.

Evans soldiered on to finish third on his return to the works team but further back the drama continued. Young Darren Gass had been impressing on his home event and had been up to fourth position until he slid into a bank and suffered a low speed roll. This allowed Phillip Morrow to take the position, one which the reigning Mitsubishi Evo Champion was to hold to the end. Considering the mental ordeal of the past few weeks this was a major boost to the youngster and he was fittingly awarded the Pirelli Star Driver Award.

David Higgins had struggled with handling issues on his Subaru Impreza all weekend. But by finishing fifth, he maintains his position at the top of the leaderboard although the Ulster marks the first time this year that the Manxman has not stood on the podium.