Higgins and Thomas win BRC round five, Ulster Rally
Date published : 24 Aug 2009 - 12:59:45
Pirelli TEG Sport crew Mark
Higgins and Bryan Thomas took a lonely victory on this weekend’s Toddsleap.com
Ulster International Rally, the fifth round of the MSA British Rally
Championship.
Their eventual winning margin of
nearly three minutes from local youngster Alastair Fisher, partnered by Higgins’
former co-driver Rory Kennedy, certainly does not tell the whole story though,
as the event was full of intrigue from the start.
Higgins’ main Championship rivals
Keith Cronin and Greg Shinnors had begun well, posting times that made a repeat
of the pair’s year-long battle a definite possibility on the 127 mile event. But
disaster struck for the Irishman on the final stage of Friday, going off the
road while 14 seconds clear of triple Champion Higgins.
The incident damaged the front of
the car, but critically failing to finish the stage would have cost Cronin a ten
minute penalty even if it were repaired for the Saturday re-start. This he and
his team elected not to do, instead saving precious funds to take the fight to
the final round in
Yorkshire which counts for
1½ points.
At the finish Higgins said, “It is
a shame about Keith, but it still means that whoever wins in
Yorkshire will take the title. In some respects it was
lucky that Gwyndaf (Evans) was fighting us for the event Group N win. Even
though he isn't registered for points, it has helped keep our concentration.” He
concluded, “The rally is definitely one of the best in the British Rally
Championship; the stages, the organisation – all brilliant.”
Fisher’s was a mature drive to
second and he was pleased to have been close to the times of Higgins, even
beating him on stage one. The young driver’s development has been well planned
and he proved here on home tarmac that he was certainly worthy of the Pirelli
Star Driver nomination on the previous rally. An uneventful
Ulster on the
whole means he consolidates his third place in the Championship and is just one
point away from Cronin who now lies second.
The battle for third place was
probably the most unpredictable of the whole season so far, the place held by no
less than seven different drivers throughout the event. After the opening stage
it was amazingly Higgins who occupied the place, but Fisher soon slotted into
place behind the Championship front-runners, staying in second after Cronin’s
demise.
Higgins’ Pirelli TEG Sport
team-mates Adam Gould and Seb Marshall took over the place briefly on Friday’s
last stage, but just 0.6 of a second split third to fifth places, Dave Weston
Jnr and new co-driver Gordon Noble trailing the Revolution Wheels crew of Euan
Thorburn & Campbell Roy by just a tenth.
Weston kept his head on Friday’s
first two unpredictable stages to take third, while minor overshoots and moments
for both Gould and Thorburn dropped them a handful of seconds
back.
Stage nine looked like being
pivotal in the fight for third when Gould and Thorburn both crashed heavily.
Although all four crew members were OK, third should have been safe for Weston,
but he too hit a bank and bent the rear suspension, losing five minutes and
elevating Jonny Greer and Kirsty Riddick as the fifth crew to hold third
place.
Greer’s hold on the position was
to be short lived though, as suspected fuel pressure problems that had been
causing a loss of power, turned into engine failure with just two full stages of
the event remaining.
The place now fell to a front
wheel drive car, that of Finnish hotshot Matti Rantanen and new co-driver Tuomo
Nikkola. The little two litre Group N Clio would certainly have been an
impressive sight on the finish ramp alongside Subaru and Mitsubishi, but it was
not to be. The Finn, who had been inside the top ten and leading the R3 class
all event, crashed heavily, but were thankfully uninjured on the very next
stage; unlucky thirteen.
After it appeared that nobody
wanted to take the final podium spot, even Rantanen’s accident seemed to jinx
the place as the crews who stopped to help were given their actual stage times
rather than a notional one. This briefly left Weston back in third, but after a
steward’s decision, Team JRM Lico’s David Bogie and Kevin Rae re-took the place
that should have been theirs after the Finn’s exit.
The Scot’s event had been hampered
early on when a turbo pipe came adrift, later spending some time in a field. But
he was pleased at the finish, particularly as he was under some pressure from
Marty McCormack who finished top two wheel drive and fourth overall in his
Citroën C2R2 Max.
McCormack’s and Phil Clarke’s
Ulster Rally was near perfect affair, taking not only top front wheel drive
position, but the excellent stage times and level headed approach also won the
local Draperstown driver the fifth Pirelli Star Driver
nomination.
Not content with a chance to win a
fully funded drive in the 2010 British Rally Championship, the youngster also
cannot be caught in the MSA British Junior Rally Championship. Even if he
doesn't contest the final rally in Yorkshire will take the award at the Royal
Automobile Club’s Pall Mall headquarters at the glittering January awards
ceremony, although he still needs to contest the final Citroën Racing Trophy
round in northern
France in September to seal the
Citroën title.
Sixth of the British Rally
Championship finishers were Craig Breen and Gareth Roberts who also took the
Rally 3 class victory. But probably most important to the Irish youngster is
victory in both the
UK and Irish Fiesta SportTrophy
Championships, sealed on stage ten of the rally. Having pushed for the win from
the start, he was delighted at the service area, but realised that he had four
more stage to go before the finish of the International event.
Another front wheel driver inside
the top ten of the British Rally Championship finishers and winning the Swift
Sport Cup and rally 1 class were Richard Sykes and Simon Taylor. Their R1 win
was at the expense of Joseph McGonigle who had run at the front in his Honda,
but transmission problems forced him out, leaving a smiling Sykes to take both
accolades. They very nearly didn't make it though, gear selection problems early
on, manifesting as a loss of second and fourth gears on the final stages.
The final class victors were the
Graham brother Steve and Tony in their diesel Astra, the ultra economical and
distinctive coupe finishing fifteenth, but crucially amassing enough points to
take the 2009 British Rally Championship Diesel Cup. Their plan for the final
day had been to try and complete all the mileage on one tank of fuel, a plan
that nearly worked. With fuel lights flashing in the final eight mile test,
Steve was forced to switch to economy mode, gasping to a fuel station on the
final run back to the finish.
The final round of the 2009 MSA
British Rally Championship is International Rally Yorkshire on September
26th, but if you can't wait for the live action, coverage from this
weekend will be shown on Sky Sports this Tuesday (25th August) at
8pm.
