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<channel><generator>iloblog 1.0</generator><title>Mark Higgins Rally Driver&#039;s Blog Feed</title><link>http://higgyblog.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/</link><description>Welcome to my &quot;Blog&quot;I hope to keep this site up to date with news, photos and even video links for you to view or download....</description><item><title>End of season</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=51</link><description><![CDATA[      

 Well although I have not been very good on the blog, it has been a very productive year for myself and Ieuan Thomas as a new partnership in 2011,      Apart from two retirements in Malaysia and china, we have won group N or the overall rally on all of the events we have competed in,     We have just returned form our 4th win in china on the trot, setting fastest times on all but the super special stage, so looking forward to the xmas break,      The season’s wins have been,     Rally Queensland, APRC  Russian Rally Masters  The last 4 china events, which gave the team the team championship and off course one of the highlights of my career, the lap around the TT course in the Subaru. (DVD now available from Duke marketing)     On a negative note, there was no manx rally or any UK events for me, the first time since I started competing over 22 years ago,     As for next year I hope to be in china again for the second part of the season and should be very busy during the first half of the season working on a new film???         I would also like to congratulate D Mack tyres on their GB success and look forward to seeing how the new tyres go next season,     Anyway, I hope you all have had a great Xmas and New Year and thanks very much for everyone’s support,        Best wishes        Mark      
 ]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:16:33 +0000</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>I&#039;m back!</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=50</link><description><![CDATA[ Well firstly I must apologise for my poor updates on the blog recently.

   

 Although most think I am quiet because we are not competing in the UK,
it has been very busy lately. 

   

 This unfortunately is looking like the first year of competing where I
won’t do a rally in the UK, sign of the current times. 

   

 Anyway a little catch up on what’s been going on since our last blog and
Australia. 

   

 As you may have seen we were able to break the lap record on the Isle of
Man TT course, which was a fantastic opportunity and you can see on YouTube
that we had a slide of the car at the bottom of bray hill at 150MPH!!! That
definitely woke me up. 

   

 The whole experience was fantastic and to have the whole course closed
off for the one car was a real honor for me, it was one of the most adrenalin
fuelled things I have ever done, and I would love to have a go again in a less
standard vehicle built specially for the job, although the Subaru was very
impressive. 

   

 After that we took the Subaru Cosworth to Cholmondeley hill for the Pageant
of Power, and just missed out on the fastest time of the weekend to a
Lamborghini although we managed to be fastest on all the runs when it was wet
but quite a margin against some special cars in the super car class, 

   

 I am currently writing this in China and very happy to be back with our
team doing the championship. The first event started badly with a retirement
from the lead on day one with a faulty sump plug, so we lost all the oil, but
the next round went well with a win and we are hoping for a good run this
weekend back on the asphalt. 

   

 Team UK has been keeping me busy and it’s great to see Elfyn Evans, John
MacCrone and Harry Hunt all keeping busy with their programs around the world
and BRC. 

   

 I even managed a race in the legend race car at Oulton Park, which
unfortunately ended with two blown engines. This was the first time I had used
the VK Kick car and hope to get it out again for Pembrey later in the year. 

   

 Last week saw a return to VW after 12 years racing in the Scirocco cup
at brands. This was a great event and VW did a great job with the car as usual,
and hospitality. I was in the legends race with Tiff Needell, Johnny Herbert
and Mark Blundell. 

   

 After missing practice on Friday being stuck on the M25, we qualified
poorly but managed a third in the Legend race. It was a great weekend and big
thanks to everyone at VW. 

   

 Well that’s me a little more up to date, and I will be in touch if there
is any news about a UK outing. 

   

 Cheers 

   

 Mark 

   

   
 ]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:03:27 +0100</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>Mark smashes TT lap record on first attempt</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=49</link><description><![CDATA[ Mark is currently on the Isle of Man with Subaru USA attempting to emulate Tony Pond's famous lap of the TT from 1990.   It's been a long time ambition of Mark's to do this, and he smashed the record on his first attempt on Monday.  His next practice lap is today.  Click  here  to listen to interviews with Mark before and after his lap, from Chris Boyde at Energy FM.  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:53:48 +0100</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>Higgins wins Down Under!</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=48</link><description><![CDATA[ Higgins wins Down under!!  Mark Higgins and Ieuan Thomas claimed their first APRC (FIA Asian Pacific Championship) win last weekend on Rally Queensland in Australia.  The rally was based around the town of Caloundra just north of Brisbane on the gravel roads in the Imbil area.  This was round two of the championship and after a disappointing start to the championship in Malaysia, Mark eventually won the three-day event by 15 seconds.  The event had its strongest entry in its history with fierce competition from Proton S2000 cars of Alister McRae and Chris Atkinson, and reigning champions Japan’s Katsu Taguchi and India’s Guarav Gill, among others.  The rally started on Friday evening with a spectator stage on asphalt. Unfortunately the team was unable to provide spot lamps, which cost Mark and Ieuan a few seconds but they lay fifth overnight and only a few seconds off the lead.  Day two consisted of eight forest stages followed by a repeat in the evening of the super special stage.  The car performed faultlessly throughout the event but Mark did not have the full confidence to push on the high speed sections. Of all the crews in the fight for the lead Mark was the only driver not to have competed on the event before, and felt that the lack of knowledge of the roads made for some caution.  The nature of the stages were very mixed with very high-speed sections between the trees and some very technical sections with water splashes.  At the end of day two Mark was in fourth place but there was only 13 seconds covering the top four cars.  Mark said, “I was happy with day two, and was sure we could push much harder on the final day, the plan was to preserve the car and be careful after Malaysia, and I was surprised to be that close to the front at this stage of the event.”  The final leg was a similar route with the final stage, the longest of the event at 34km.  Mark attacked in the first stage of the morning, but was surprised to be beaten by Gill and McRae. A much harder push was required and Mark started eating into the lead of Gill, as McRae the previous leader started to suffer car problems dropping him down the order.  The first section went well and at service the gap was down to 10 seconds. After the midday service mark took further time and went to the start of the final stage 1.4 seconds down on Gill.  Mark said, “The last stage was very tricky and any small mistake would be punished, so a controlled attack was required. I was a little unsettled as the stage was delayed, and I just wanted to get into it. I had a great rhythm and both Ieuan and I pushed very hard, the stage seemed to take ages but at the end I was confident we had done enough.”  The clocks stopped with Mark taking 17 seconds off his nearest rival to win by 15 seconds.  “This has been a very difficult but great event for the team, the car was faultless and it’s great to get some strong points on the board for the championship,” said Mark. “The last two stages were very rewarding and we enjoyed being able to drive to a strategy with the Mitsubishi Evo 10.”  Not only did mark win in Australia but the other side of the world his brother David also won the fourth round of the American championship.  Mark’s next outing is back to the island off Australia in three weeks for round three at New Caledonia.  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 18 May 2011 08:42:19 +0100</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>Malaysian Rally</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=47</link><description><![CDATA[ Well it seems ages since my last event and now it's Malaysia, the first round of the APRC. With a new team car and co-driver this was going to be a challenge.  Myself and Ieuan Thomas set out from the UK on the Saturday so we could test and acclimatise to the very hot and humid conditions. Unfortunately there was a big problem with customs and the team were not able to get the cars out until just before the event started which left us with no recce car on day one and only a short test of 6km around a super special stage.  The rally has always been a rally of attrition so our plan with no test was to get round and collect some valuable points.  The first stage was 31km long and the heat and humidity made this the hardest event I had ever competed in. Stage one was steady and after seeing Cody Crocker off on the first tight corner, a sensible approach was required.   The rain had come down the previous night, and when this happens the surface is like ice and very hard to judge. We took it far to carefully and lost over 30 seconds to the Protons of Alister McRae and Chris Atkinson, not to mention several Group N cars.  Stage three had some more grip and I was starting to get the feel of the car, but disaster struck after 10km when one of the pacenotes was misread and we hit the outside of the bank which put the car on its roof and out of the event. This was a massive disappointment for Ieuan and myself and a terrible start to the championship.  The car was not badly damaged so the team set to work to repair it so we could superally on Sunday and get some valuable mileage in the car. The mechanics did a great job and the car looked almost like new in the morning.  The first stage started with a overshoot that cost us 10 seconds and we were only six seconds off the fastest time, so we were at least finding a good pace. The day got better with each stage, and with confidence we set the fastest stage time on the last three stages which gave us five bonus points that may come in very useful at the end of the year.  So not a good start to the year, but at least we were able to show good speed with the new car and team.   Our next event is Australia, so we're hoping to get back in the fight with a good solid result!  Mark   
 ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 09 Apr 2011 09:23:09 +0100</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>2011 is go!</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=46</link><description><![CDATA[ It's hard to believe we are already in the middle of February and the WRC season has started.  I have had a few trips away but none have involved any competition so far. I've been working in Finland doing some driver training and more recently teaching a course in Peru.  Peru was a great country with great people and some of the best food I have ever tasted! It looks like I may be back there again in July, and there is a chance of doing the Inka long distance rally there later this year.  Sweden started today and was the first event for the D mack tyres, It has been a fantastic start with two of the cars setting first non swedish drivers times in PWRC and SWRC and top ten overall times with a Super 2000 car in the hands of Prokop and a Group N car with Semerad.  As for my season ahead...  Christmas was good and I had signed a contract to rally in China again with the KST team. There was an extra event in the championship and all was looking great until... The China federation decided to ban all non Chinese drivers from there series! We are not sure why this has been done, but it's a very disappointing decision as the championship had some great competition and credibility because of it. A very disappointing end to a great series which was gathering momentum every year.  On a positive note, I have managed to land a drive in this years Asia Pacific Rally Championship driving with Wan Yu - the team my brother drove for in China for the last five years in a Evo 10. The car and team are one of the best in China and produce a lovely car so I'm really looking forward to the different events that start at the end of March in Malaysia. We also travel to Australia, New zealand, Japan and New Caledonia and china, so it should be a very interesting season. I will be co-driven by Ieuan Thomas, he has a lot of experience with the Wan Yu team, having competed with them for the last few years.  Unfortunately rallying in the UK is not looking good but you never know what can happen.  Look forward to reporting on our first event  Mark  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 13 Feb 2011 17:04:35 +0000</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>Last event in china - with a twist</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=45</link><description><![CDATA[ I am currently typing away on the first half of my journey from China to Dubai, hoping that I will be able to get home with the current weather in the UK!  At the weekend Robbie Durant and myself competed in the final round of the Chinese Rally Championship in Fogang.  The objective was to secure the teams championship and all that was needed to do that was three points.  Fogang was my first event that I had done before and the test went well with a good overall balance on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9.  The weather was really strange. On our arrival the temperature was 20 degrees but two days later it was minus 2 and very wet, especially for the recce.  The first stage started very badly and I cut a corner 2 miles in and straight away had a front right puncture, this dropped us 1m30s to the leader, my brother David, and put us very close to last position in the event.  After a few stages our objective was to try and climb up to second, which would not be easy but possible looking at the time we were able to take off the drivers in front, although there was no way we could catch my brother as his pace was very strong in his Evo X just like it was last year.  At the end of day 1 we had climbed up to fifth and 14 seconds covered the second to fifth places. With a big push we managed to hall them in going into first service and had also pulled the gap to David down by 25 seconds after he had a turbo pipe issue.  From here on we kept a comfortable pace and extended the gap to Patrik Flodin and Jussi Valimaki and the two local drivers to get to the end in second place just over 50 seconds behind David.  It’s a shame about the puncture as it would have been a great fight but that’s rallying, and talking about that - we ended up winning the event when David’s car was excluded at post event because of a very minor material error.  This was no way to win the event and I felt for David, as there was no performance advantage at all and a very hard way for David to end such a good five years in China.  A big thanks to the team for a fantastic year.  So now I'm looking forward to Christmas and also another year in China, which I confirmed on the event.  Hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year and hope to do some UK rallies again soon  Mark  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:08:10 +0000</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>What a weekend!</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=44</link><description><![CDATA[ The Roger Albert Clark was an event I was really looking forward to, and the chance to drive Mark Solloways Ford Escort Mk 2, with the Elite Gearbox and new DMACK tyres was going to make for a great weekend. We managed a small test on the Wednesday night and everything felt great with the car and tryes in the slippy conditions.  But - and a very big but - the heavens opened with snow for the rally!!!  Unfortunately this became a big problem as the current DMACK range only has a gravel tyre for the Escort. As you can imagine we did not expect weather as bad as this and apart from the first stage in Scotland, Ae, the road was either full snow or Ice.  The rally started slowly for us and we were losing as much as 20 seconds per mile behind the fastest cars. Twelve miles in we were nearly three minutes down and outside the Top 20. I felt for the spectaters who wanted to see us going fast as this was impossible and it was a massive job just to keep the car on the road at what felt like walking pace. On some stages we had to be pushed onto the start line!  We were hoping the weather outside of Yorkshire was going to be better, but then it snowed in Kielder making the event a white out. The organisers did an amazing job to keep the rally going, and had to make up the route as the event went on, with a plot and bash on the Monday.   There were times when we wanted to call it a day, but we carried on just about keeping the car on the road to finish. Not our best result but we did manage to get back to seventh place. We did try a few tricks with road position, but that backfired on us as the first time we caught a car and the second time the road got slower as it polished up!!  A fantastic event, great car and team, and a shame we did not have the right tyre for the extreme conditions. We were unlucky with the weather and it was a real shame we could not show how good the DMACK tyre is on the gravel it was designed for.  A big thanks to all the marshals and organisors and of course Mark and all the team. Not forgetting my new co-driver for the event Dale Furness, who did a great job on the maps.  China next in a couple of weeks, Tarmac without snow - I hope!!  Mark  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:47:59 +0000</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>My first Asia Pacific rally win! </title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=43</link><description><![CDATA[ Hi everyone  It's been a busy few months again, and after a very disappointing event in China last time out it was time to head to Longyou for the penultimate round of the Chinese championship which was also the final round of the Asia Pacific championship.  For this event there was a very strong entry. As well as the usual competition coming from my brother David who had done the event several times, Patrik Flodin, Patrik Sandell and also the regular APRC guys that  included the Protons of Alistair McRae and Chris Atkinson. The event was also going to be very tricky regarding set up as 40 percent of it was asphalt (actually concrete which seems to be the preferred road surface in China!), with the rest being gravel so set up was always going to be very difficult. The roads were also very twisty so the average speeds were down making this a WRC length event.  The Friday night super special went well with 1.3secs covering the top 6 cars. Then the first stage in the morning was cancelled due to an accident.  After the next two stages we went into service two seconds behind Sandell in second overall. From the stages it was apparent that punctures may be an issue and we opted for a safe choice using the Pirelli XR tyre, this is never a fast tyre but very strong and often used in Greece. The problem was that the tyre arrived the night before the event which meant we had no chance to test. The next group of stages saw us lose some time with a overshoot and stall, so we dropped just behind Flodin and David, Sandell dropped two minutes back with a puncture, so we were happy with our plan although we had over cut the tyres a little, so were confident we could push on the last group of stages.  We did this and with Flodin damaging the cross member ended the day with a 40 second lead over David. This was a great position to be in and the third rally in a row where we had led at the end of the first day, however driving fast but carefully was going to make day two a real challenge!  We were aware road cleaning would be an issue and that Sandell was on a big push to climb back up the field, the twisty stages seemed to suit his Subaru very well and his times were very impressive, although we had to be careful to just do just enough to preserve our lead.  The two groups of stages were again very tough and took a safe tyre in the morning which in hindsight we should have cut and was also a little soft. We dropped seven seconds in the loop to David with road cleaning so were then in a good position to be able to drive carefully to the finish.  This we did - and won our first Asia Pacific event with Sandell snatching second on the last stage and David third. The team again did a fantastic job with the car, Pirelli tyres and so did Robbie Durant who co-drove for me.  We'll catch up soon with some other news about a Group 4 Escort, D Mack tyres and the best rally of the year at the end of November!!!!!  See you soon     Mark  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 09 Nov 2010 11:19:19 +0000</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item><item><title>Back to China and asphalt, but it didn&#039;t go to plan...</title><link>http://iloapp.creativetalentphotos.co.uk/blog/higgyblog?Home&amp;post=42</link><description><![CDATA[ It really seems a long time since the last event in China, and its nice to be back on the black stuff again after what has nearly been a year since my last outing on asphalt at the Ulster Rally. Well, I say asphalt, however the road was actually concrete but the grip was still very good.  I am writing this on the plane on the way back to Vienna from Beijing, then I go to Warsaw and straight to Riga to do some more driver training. Then it’s back to the UK for the Trackrod with the Team UK boys, then straight off to France, so it’s thankfully very busy at the moment.  Anyway, back to China. The event was based in the Shandong region and temperatures were very hot, up into the early 30s. I have been working very hard on my fitness and felt well prepared for the event and the chance to win two events in a row. As ever, the competition would be very strong with Patrik Flodin, Patrik Sandell, my brother David and Jussi Valimaki, so we had to make sure everything that could be done was done to prepare.  My co-driver for the event was Robbie Durrant, and this would be our first rally together. We both arrived on the Saturday before the rally, and tested on the Monday. It was difficult to estimate a set up as we had not done the recce yet, but we felt the car was good and much improved on the previous asphalt event I did in Fogang last year.  But as soon as the recce was over, I knew we had to plan another test because the road proved to be very difficult. It was narrow and bumpy with a little bit of everything in it.  We had the super special on Friday, and at the end only one second separated the top six drivers. Then Saturday morning started with a 25km stage which was repeated four times and a shorter 9km stage which was also repeated.  We had a good run through, apart from meeting a bike coming opposite direction as we were first on the road! I pushed quite hard and kept it very clean. Then after we finished we heard that Sandel had crashed 2km in, Jussi about three quarters of the way in, Flodin had a puncture and David had gearbox troubles, so we were straight away holding a minute lead to our team mate Dong. We were fastest in the second stage too, but this time we had to slow down for an official car driving in the stage!  When we arrived in service we knew we were in a great position, but unsure of the pace because of the others having problems. When we returned for the second run we managed to extend our lead and were able to take two seconds per kilometer out of the following pack, which was great news. The roads were similar to bumpy Ireland, which I have always loved to drive on.  At the end of day two, after being fastest on every stage, we were four minutes in the lead.  Then it all went wrong.  When we tried to check into the second service the cars at the back of the entry list were still checking out of parc ferme. There seemed to be some sort of confusion with us coming back in again which meant the in control was not in place for us, as first car on the road. So we drove into service without the time on our card for the next control, which at that time was not set up, and we think they set it up directly after we drove past.  Because we missed the control, there had to be a stewards meeting and we were given a 29 minute penalty because we had no photographic evidence to prove that the control had not been set up in time for us. We were even told by the marshal that the control was not there, and he crossed it out of Robbie's road book.  With this penalty there was no point carrying on and the team pulled us out of the final day of the event.  I was, and still am gutted as the team had done a great job and I believe we had done a great job too. The language barrier made the whole situation very difficult and I think the punishment was very harsh given what happened.  Anyway best try and put it behind us now. On a positive note we had great pace and were able to show some of the world's current best Group N drivers that we can beat them in the same car.  David recovered from his transmission problems in his Evo 10 and ended up with a win, with Flodin in the similar Evo 9 to mine on the same tyres as me, finishing second. Our team mate Dong finished a strong third.  Look forward to reporting some better news soon, thanks for all your  support.  Mark     
 ]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:56:20 +0100</pubDate><category>Latest News</category></item></channel>
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