Press Releases - David Higgins - Rally Driver

David Higgins has decided to remain in China after the Jiangning Rally to take part in tests of his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X with the WY Rally Team, after being forced to contest the event without testing on gravel beforehand.

David and his co-driver Ieuan Thomas took third place points for the team on the event, despite their testing problems which began a month ago when David was unable to travel to China to take part in an essential testing in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X due to the volcanic ash cloud canceling their flights.

"That was going to be the first gravel test we've ever done in the car," said David. "When it didn't work out, we thought we could try to overcome the situation by trying to fit in a gravel test when we arrived for the rally last week, but we only managed to fit in 7km before the fuel tank split. Then any time we got in the car after that was to check the fuel tank was okay, not to set up for gravel, so we went into the event blind as to how the car would react in comparison to the Evo9 we had last year."

During the opening superspecial stage the crew set a good time but the car ran wide, and the main stages on Saturday got off to a good start, despite David feeling the car set up was still too soft.

"We were lying second overall when a damper broke and the car went wide on the next bend, hitting a rock and pushing the body of the car onto the tyre," explained David. "We lost about one and a half minutes and dropped to fifth. We pushed back up to fourth overnight, then on the opening stage on Sunday the rear diff broke on the car so we did the first two stages in front wheel drive.

"However, once we got sorted we did set the fastest time on the final two stages, showing the car can do what it needs to if we have the right preparation for an event. If we had been able to test beforehand, we know we would have had the best set up possible, and taken a much better result. Us staying on in China to do more testing will give us a better chance on the next event - and hopefully the ash cloud will be long gone by then too!"

The Jiangning Rally was won by Mark Higgins, with Jussi Valimaki second.

After a disappointing start to their day when the rear diff on their Mitsubishi broke on the first stage, David and Ieuan have finished third overall on the Jiangning Rally.

After doing the first two stages in front wheel drive, they went on to set fastest times on the final two stages of the event.

Mark Higgins won the event, with Jussi Valimaki second.

News just in from David in China reports a bad day at the office.

The first two stages ran smoothly enough despite the car set up being too soft, leaving David and Ieuan lying second behind David's brother Mark.

But in stage four a damper broke on their Mitsubishi and the car went wide on the next bend, hitting a rock and pushing the body of the car onto the tyre, losing the crew 1m30s and dropping them down to fifth overall.

Over the last two stages David and Ieuan fought back in their usual style, moving up to fourth. Third was in sight, but unfortunately the boys missed out on the position after they gained 20s of road penalty time when they were working on the car.

Mark Higgins leads overnight, with Jussi Valimaki second and Patrik Sandell third.

There are four stages left to run tomorrow, more news after the finish.

News just in from China that the superspecial opening stage of the Jiangning Rally is over.

Patrik Flodin currently leads the event, with David and Ieuan joint second with Jussi Valimaki, and David's brother Mark fourth. David says the car felt good, but ran very wide on the first bend.

More news after Saturday's six stages tomorrow.

After a rather trying start to their current Chinese adventure, David and Ieuan have managed to squeeze in a brief gravel test in their Mitsubishi Lancer EvoX ahead of the opening superspecial stage tomorrow night.

However, this was just enough time to ensure the new fuel tank was good to go, and the team did not have time to make any set up changes to the car.

With the recce complete, David says the stages are extremely rough and it is sure to be a hard rally ahead.

More news after the superspecial stage tomorrow.

As you will recall, David recently missed out on the chance to go and test his Mitsubishi Lancer EvoX on gravel in China because of the volcanic ash cloud causing his flights to be cancelled.

So it has been a day day for the team in China today, with reports coming in from David to say they only managed to do a 7km test in the car before the fuel tank split.

Now David's first decent mileage on gravel in the car will be during the superspecial stagge of the rally on Friday.

David Higgins returns to China this week for round two of the Chinese Rally Championship, the Jiangning Rally.

The event takes competitors to the Nanjing district of China, and gives them their first taste of gravel in the 2010 season. Having already missed one testing opportunity in China due to the volcanic ash clouds, David may be forced to hit the Chinese gravel for the first time on the first stage.

"Even though we did the rally last year, it will be new ground for us this year because it's our first gravel rally in the Evo X," says David. "And we may not get to have a good test before the rally because our test was supposed to happen last month and I was unable to travel to China to do it because of the UK airports being shut due to the volcanic ash clouds."

Last year David and his co-driver Ieuan Thomas finished second on the event after suffering a burst damper on their WY Rally Team Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 they drove last season.

"Jiangning is a really tough rally with a mixture of twisty sections and very high speed stretches," says David. "The roads are narrow with lots of hazards and dangers at the side of the road so being neat on the stages is a must. These are the kind of stages I love driving on. But competition will be as tough as ever with PWRC leader Patrik Flodin, Patrik Sandell, and my brother Mark all out to show what they can do on Chinese gravel."

Last year's event winner Jussi Valimaki will be competing as David's team mate with the WY Rally Team this year, but will not be scoring team points as he is only hiring the car.

The event takes place from 14th to 16th May. David will be updating his
website as usual throughout the event.

David Higgins' Chinese Rally Championship plans have been dealt a worrying blow after he has been unable to fly to China recently for essential tests.

Like thousands of Britons, David's travel plans were ruined due to the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull closing UK air space.

"Not being able to get out to China this week is a disaster for us," said David. "The whole point of me flying out there was to do crucial tyre testing work. The testing was going to form the basis of figuring out which tyres the team would use for the rest of the season, so this could have a huge impact on our championship year. Our engineers and representatives from the tyre company were all sat in China awaiting our arrival. Chinese air space was not effected by the volcano, so they had hoped I would get a flight out if the ash cloud changed direction, and remained on standby to work for me right up until the last minute my flight cancellation was confirmed."

David had been due to spend three days in China, but after his flight was cancelled he was unable to get another set of flights which would have taken him to the country before he is due to fly out there for the next championship event, the Jiangning Rally.

"Myself and my co-driver Ieuan Thomas will fly out to China for the rally on 9th May," explained David. "And the next flight I could have got on was that day anyway. As it stands we will have to try to squeeze in a test when we arrive in the country, but even if we manage to do that there may not be enough of the tyre we choose available for us to use them throughout the event. This could literally make the difference between us winning and losing the teams title again for the WY Rally Team."

The Jiangning Rally takes place in the Nanjing district of China from 14th - 16th May.

At the end of a testing event for David and Ieuan, they have finished fourth overall in China.

Having been plagued with overheating difficulties throughout the event in their Evo X, the team are just happy to have finished so high up the leader board and get some good team points under their belt for the WY Rally Team.

Patrik Flodin won the event with Patrik Sandell second and Mark Higgins third.

It's been a frustrating day for David and Ieuan in China, suffering with overheating problems on their Evo X.

With one day to go, they lie fourth overall behind leader Patrik Flodin, Patrik Sandell in second and third placed Mark Higgins.

More news from the end of the rally tomorrow.

With the opening super special stage of the Mohe Rally complete, David and Ieuan lie third overall.

David reported a good recce, and despite the late arrival of his snow tyres, he managed to get a short test under his belt which went well in the new Evo X.

As the team had predicted, the rally is taking place in deep snow and low temperatures.

Patrik Flodin currently leads with Mark Higgins second.

David Higgins and Ieuan Thomas are back in China this weekend to begin their defence of the teams title for the WY Rally Team at the opening round of the Chinese Rally Championship, the Mohe Rally.

When the event last ran in 2008 it had to be cancelled due to the high speeds the drivers were achieving on the stages. But as David explains, things could not be more different this year.

"We are told the Hei Longjiang region where the rally is held is under a blanket of snow at the moment," said David. "It's in quite a remote area of China so it will probably take us a long time to get there, and when we do arrive, the temperature is said to be around minus 25. I have won two snow rallies before, but this will be my first on studded tyres. I'm expecting it to be a very difficult event for us."

Regardless of the conditions, David is excited at the prospect of competing in anger in his new Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X for the first time and working with a new engineer, and there are other changes afoot in China this year too.

"We think we are the only foreign team which has been retained for the 2010 China season," said David. "There will be a few new faces taking part, but they are people we have met before on the stages, so we hope we can beat them. PWRC driver Patrik Flodin joins the Honghe team, former JWRC champion Patrik Sandell joins the Subaru China team, and my brother Mark joins KST."

The event, which takes place on 12 - 14 March, features a super special on the Friday night, four stages on Saturday and two on Sunday.

David and Ieuan have finished second overall in the Shaowu Rally - but it is enough to secure the teams title for 2009 for the WY Rally Team.

David reported that they had endured quite a hard day, driving to keep second place to win the teams points race. They had a turbo problem for one stage which lost them power and cost them time.

The boys now face another race - to get home in time for Christmas. Having switched flights already after the rumoured BA strike action, the boys had to drive for 11 hours to get to the airport, only to find the alternative flight they were scheduled on had been cancelled.

They are now en route back to the UK via Germany.

At the end of the first full day's rallying on the Shaowu Rally, David and Ieuan lie second overall, 41 seconds behind Jari Ketoma.

After being just one second off the leader in the first stage, the boys suffered a misfire on their Mitsubishi Lancer E9 in the second stage and lost 15 seconds.

KST driver Juha Salo then crashed in the third stage. He was one of the five drivers competing for the teams' title in China this weekend.

Jussi Valimaki is third, 45 seconds behind David and Ieuan, with Dean Herridge fourth.

The Super Special is over in China, and David and Ieuan are lying in second place behind Jari Ketoma. Jussi Valimaki is in third place with Dean Herridge fourth.

David says the team are all set for tomorrow, and think it could be icy in places as the temperature in China (like the UK) has dropped.

More news after the stages tomorrow.

The news from China this morning is that the recce for the Shaowu Rally has gone well. The stages are reported to be very fast and may suit the Finnish drivers well.

David also reports that his ankle is on the mend, and he hopes it will be around 80% back to normal by Saturday's stages.

David has reported that their pre-event test has gone well. It began raining halfway through the test which made it difficult to decide if they have got the tyre set-up right, but the car felt good.

The team have also completed a good test in the Evo X, and may test it again before the rally this weekend.

Sadly David's ankle is not doing so well, it is now fully black in colour - and the proposed British Airways strike may cause the boys a problem getting home!

News has come in this morning that David has sustained minor injuries while training ahead of the Shaowu Rally in China.

While he was out running a lorry pulled out, and a motorbike which swerved to avoid the lorry managed to knock David to the ground.

David is in good spirits, having escaped with only a sprained left ankle and a very painful right shoulder - but this is not the way he wanted to start his rallying week.

The rally begins on Friday, but David is hoping to do some testing of both the Evo 9 he will use this weekend, and an Evo X ahead of the event.

David Higgins goes back to China this week to take part in a five-way title fight for team honours in the Chinese Rally Championship on the Shaowu Rally.

The WY Rally Team, which David drives for, currently lead the points table, but the rival KST team are only one point behind. The Honghe, FCACA and Subaru China teams are all also still in with a shot at the title.

“We could have wrapped up the title on the last event,” said Higgins. “But the protest which was put in against us stood, so we lost our points. So we’re heading back to China with a vengeance. I don’t feel we have a point to prove, because we have won out there more than anyone else, but we are determined to take the title for the team because it should have been ours last time out.”

This is the second time the gravel event has run, last year it was a round of the IRC but Higgins and Thomas were forced to miss it so they could attend Rally GB.

“Our stand in Jarkko Miettinen won it last year,” said Higgins. “But Juha Salo from KST will most likely be our biggest rival out there, he is as determined as us to pick up the team title and had led the event last year before he crashed out. But as usual, with it being the final round of the season, everyone will be pushing hard to ensure they impress all the teams to get a good seat for the 2010 season.

“Weather wise this one will be a shock to the system though. On some of the events this year we’ve had drivers retiring from heat stroke, but we’re told it will be around 15 degrees centigrade in Shaowu and last year they had ice on some of the early morning stages, so who knows what lies ahead.”

The Shaowu Rally takes place in South Eastern China from Friday 18th to Sunday 20th December 2009, so the boys will just make it back to Britain just in time for Christmas.

In this week's Motorsport News, their test driver Paul O'Neill visits the Forest Experience Rally School for a taste of night rallying with David.

The BTCC driver thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the new night driving course at the school and his 1-2-1 tuition with David, and left saying he is tempted to do a rally now!

For more information on 1-2-1 tuition with David and the rally school, click here.

Photo attached, courtesy of Motorsport News and Gary Jones.

David Higgins is aiming to build on his success in the Chinese Rally Championship by putting together a deal to contest the Asia Cup alongside it in 2010.

Higgins has already committed to the 2010 Chinese Rally Championship, continuing to drive a Mitsubishi for the WY Rally Team. Adding the challenge for the Asia Cup to his calendar would only mean two or three extra events.

"The Asia Cup is made up of three rounds of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship," said Higgins. "That already includes the Longyou Rally which we do as part of the Chinese series, so I am looking into finding the funds to contest events in Malaysia, Indonesia or Japan so we can go for the Cup."

In recent years Higgins has taken a record breaking number of wins in China, and proved himself a worthy adversary for competitors in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.

"It's always very competitive on the events in China," said Higgins. "But when the APRC drivers join in the fray, it gets even more competitive. And that's the event we all love, because it gives you the chance to show what you can really do. We have always had great success on those events, mainly battling with multiple APRC champion Cody Crocker who we have beaten in the past, so it makes sense to build on that with the Asia Cup."

The 2010 Asia Cup kicks off with the Malaysian Rally on April 24/25.

Chinese Rally Championship frontrunner David Higgins was left devastated today when he was stripped of his Longyou Rally points win.

Although Higgins and co-driver Ieuan Thomas finished the event second overall behind APRC driver Cody Crocker, they picked up top points in the Chinese Rally Championship section - but on the way back to service they encountered problems.

"We had lost 45 seconds with a spin on the first day, so to take top points was great," said Higgins. "But then we encountered fuel pressure problems on the way back to service. A crew car came out to try to help us thinking we were out of the rally, but our car slowed down as the crew car got near us, and the crew car ran into the back of us very hard. We were only about 500 metres away from the service park when it happened."

A rival team then put in a protest because a crew car had been seen so close to Higgins and Thomas. As a result of the protest the pair were excluded from the rally.

Had David's win stood, he would have won the team championship title for the WY rally team. Now the team title will go down to the wire on the final round in China in December.

At the end of the first full day's rallying in China, David and Ieuan are leading the Chinese Rally Championship runners by 43 seconds ahead of Dean Herridge, despite losing 43 seconds with a spin in the penultimate stage of the day.

Overall, the crew are lying second in the rally behind Asia Pacific Rally Championship contender Cody Crocker.

David reports a very good day - but a very long one, having rallied for over two hours in one day.

More news tomorrow.

After the opening super special stage, David and Ieuan are leading the race for victory in the Chinese Rally Championship section of the event, and are lying third overall.

David says they are running further back on the road than usual, due to the event also being a round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. They are running behind that championship's lead drivers, so the roads are badly cut up by the time they go through in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9.

More news tomorrow.

David says their second recce day went very well today - but it was an early start with proceedings kicking off at 5am. Although it went well, he reports that the stages are not in great condition, left very muddy or with some surface washed away following the hard rain which has fallen in the region over the last two days.

The crew had another small test after the recce finished and are pleased they have sorted any outstanding issues with their Mitsubishi Lancer E9 ahead of the rally start.

There is a shakedown today, which actually takes place on what will be the first stage of the rally tomorrow, but David and Ieuan are forced to miss it because of the test they did yesterday. This may put them at a slight disadvantage through the opening stage tomorrow.

Either way, David thinks the event will be so tough that someone could win it without setting any top times, so it sounds like it will be a testing weekend for the boys in China.