British Rally champion Mark Higgins delivered three sensational final stages in the Kelso-based Jim Clark International Rally to bank maximum points for the second year running - but only by virtue of the championship's first-ever tie-break.
The Welsh-based Manxman, driving his GpN Subaru Impreza, was 7.1 seconds behind Ireland's longtime leader Rory Galligan with only three stages remaining.
Higgins managed to outpace the Mitsubishi driver through each of the two runnings of the two
-miler at Langton bringing the gap down to 4.1secs as they lined up for the final test, the 9.9-miler at Little Swinton.
Amazingly, Higgins stopped the clock exactly 4.1secs faster than Galligan and with the pair tied to the tenth-of-a-second, at 2hrs 9mins 27.3secs at the end of the 21 stages, the event had to be decided on a tie-break. Higgins, by dint of being 2.5sec faster than the Irishman through the opening stage at Abbey St Bathans on Friday evening, was awarded maximum points.
"I was on the limit for the last three stages," Higgins admitted yesterday. "I could not have pushed any harder and it feels so good to win. I've finished second so many times that I really feel for Rory, he drove so well."
The win means Higgins takes the championship lead by three points from Pirelli International Rally winner Ryan Champion, who finished third in his Mitsubishi.
The event overall was led by a trio of Irishmen driving more powerful World Rally cars who were using the rally as a counter in the Irish Tarmac Championship and not registered for the BRC.
Co Antrim's Derek McGarrity, driving an Impreza, finished 26.1sec ahead of the Toyota Corolla WRC of Eugene Donnelly with Eamonn Boland, also of Antrim, third in his Ford Focus WRC. Higgins and Galligan finished fourth and fifth overall.
In the latest round of the Scottish Rally Championship run over the same tarmac stages, Aberdeen's Dave Weston finished almost three minutes ahead of Steve Bannister's Ford.
