MacHale loses out to Higgins

Austin MacHale has lost his battle to become the British Rally Champion by just 8.7 seconds.

That was the margin between the five times Irish champion and his British title rival David Higgins at the end of the Tempest Rally that was won by Mark Higgins, a brother of the newly crowned British rally champion, David.

Confusion reigned at one point on this afternoon’s stages when MacHale received a two-minute penalty, however, this was soon removed by the organisers as it was attributed to the Dubliner in error.

At one point today, MacHale trailed Higgins by almost 14 seconds and although he reduced the margin during the afternoon, he failed to overturn the deficit. He finishes runner-up in the BRC.

Meanwhile, Mark Higgins (Ford Focus) had a comfortable win as his brother and MacHale concentrated on their championship ambitions. Mathew Wilson (Ford Focus) was fourth.

The Production category was won by Simon Hughes (Subaru) and Guy Wilks (Suzuki Ignis) won the Super1600 category.

Irish drivers Pat Kearney (Peugeot) and Sean Sharkey (Honda) were 26th. And 31st. Respectively.

Meanwhile, the final round of the Northern Ireland Rally championship, the Toshiba Rally, was won by Kevin Lynch (Subaru WRC). He finished some 15 seconds ahead of Derek McGarrity (Subaru WRC) who experienced driveshaft difficulties.

Raymond Johnson (Mitsubishi) netted third.

The top six was completed by Seamus Donnelly (Mitsubishi), Denis Biggerstaff (Subaru) and Michael Curran (Mitsubishi).

Lynch clinched the series from Kieran Shaw, who had transmission trouble all through the rally.