Higgins takes a Tour of Epynt clean sweep

Mark Higgins and Carl Williamson set fastest time over every one of the Nigel Ferguson Fabricators Tour of Epynt’s eight stages at the weekend, [21/21 July] taking their Triumph TR7 V8 to a third Fuchs Lubricants British Historic Rally Championship victory of the season.

The three-time British Rally Champion was unbeatable over the unforgiving military ranges, conquering the highly specialist roads with apparent ease, despite sometimes torrential rain during Saturday’s opening leg.

Higgins enjoyed a gap of one minute and twenty seconds over the chasing Seb Perez and Dale Bowen, who were their nearest challengers in the Porsche 911, with BHRC newcomers Neil Williams and Eurig Davies rounding out the podium spots in third in their Ford Escort MKII.

The two-day blast over the Welsh moorland kicked off on Saturday afternoon, with four stages on the roster. The talking point at the Llandovery start was certainly the weather and the predicted rain arrived on cue to add a further challenge to the already daunting task ahead.

After a short, sharp opening stage, Higgins caught everyone napping, with a six-second advantage over Perez, whilst Rudi Lancaster and Guy Weaver started strongly just a further second back. But the 10-mile test that followed surprised many by being bone dry through the latter half, and with most on wets, many would drop time with overheating tyres.

But Higgins took it all in his stride, and a slightly drier second pass, saw the Manxman head into the overnight halt leading by 23 seconds to Williams, who recovered from a slow start after opening the road and clearing sheep from the stage in the process. Nick Elliott and Dave Price had battled with brake failure during both passes, their damaged Escort boot an indicator of an impact with a bridge, but battled on to end the leg third.

A very different day dawned on Sunday, and with the rain replaced by sunshine and higher temperatures, so the pace increased. Once again though, Higgins was unstoppable. Hauling the Triumph around the ultra-fast roads, he went on to set scratch time over every one of the day's four tests, to add to his Manx and Argyll maximum BHRC score.

“It's been a great weekend and a huge credit to Dave Appleby and the guys who built the car, it's been fantastic,” said an elated Higgins.

“I've loved Epynt, and I can't believe I've never been here before, but I’ve loved every minute of it. The weather has been kind today, I did think it was going to rain as we came into this last stage, but it held off luckily. Fantastic to get this win under our belt".

Perez started day two in a battle with Elliott but with yet more brake issues, the Escort driver sensibly elected to call it a day, not quite giving co-driver Price the 60^th Birthday present they were hoping for.

Perez was left to claim second and extend his championship lead, grabbing the Category Two [Cars registered between 1968 and 1975] top spot in the process. He couldn’t quite match Higgins on pace and a spin in the early stages of Sunday’s opener, hampered chances of a fightback.

Having ended day one in second, Williams would haemorrhage time in the dry to Perez, and the final nail in the coffin was a clutch slave cylinder failure on the penultimate test. He recovered to take third which was some consolation, as was the Category Three [cars registered between 1976 and 1981] win.

Lancaster had made his way onto the podium after a super strong run all weekend, only for Williams to edge him down a place on the final test. Richard Hill and Patrick Cooper secured fifth after a trouble-free weekend in their Escort MKII, whilst Adrian Hetherington and Ronan O’Neil managed to get to grips with their brand-new Escort MKII by the end of the second day, taking sixth.

After a run of three back-to-back asphalt events, the BHRC returns to the gravel at the Phil Price Memorial Woodpecker Stages in September. Perez heads to the forests in command of the standings, but the likes of Higgins, Hill, Lancaster, and Hetherington are all well in the mix once drop scores come into effect at the season close in November's Anglo Caledonian Rally.

Provisional drivers points after round 6 - Tour of Epynt:

‍1. Seb Perez       161

2. Mark Higgins 131

3. Richard Hill    128

4. Adrian Hetherington 119

5. Rudi Lancaster 109