Network Q RAC Rally 23-25 November 1997

Mark Higgins had rocketed through the first four stages of the last 
leg of the RAC Rally this morning, lopping huge amounts of time off 
the 2 litre cars ahead of him as he really got to grips with the brand 
new Nissan Almera in it's first ever rally.  A 31 second deficit to 
the Seat of Harri Rovanpera was reduced to just 2 seconds before cruel 
luck intervened when he hit a gate post on the Rheola stage. The right 
hand front suspension was damaged sufficiently to warrant emergency 
road-side repairs, but without the chance to get to a proper service 
area with all of the vans, they were not going to be substantial 
enough for another 22 stage miles.

World Championship regulations stipulate that service on cars can only 
take place in designated areas that do not include the public roads, 
otherwise the crews must do their own repairs with parts carried 
within the car.

It was bitter disappointment for the whole team after the British 
Champion's fantastic fightback yesterday after having lost two minutes 
on Sunday afternoon when a straw bale was lodged underneath the car on 
the spectator stage at Donington. Reeling in that amount of time on 
any rally is particularly impressive, least of all on an event with 
such distinguished company.

Huge numbers of spectators braved the terrible weather conditions that 
saw low cloud and swirling fog make visibility around 50 to 100 metres 
in some places through the 28.6 miles of the Resolfen stage.

In that stage, Higgins did the best 2 litre time of 28.26 compared to 
A McRae's 28.36 and Rovanpera's 28.52. Mark said of his run, "That was 
pretty hairy in there to say the least. Probably one of the stages of 
my life... so much so that I really wouldn't like to go much quicker 
than that. To have 4 or 5 big moments in a stage is quite enough, but 
obviously you have to attack to the max in these conditions to get 
ahead. In the first two stages this morning I couldn't get it together 
- must have been asleep or something - but don't worry, I'm awake 
now!"

However whilst the limelight was upon the front running cars, the 
battle for the 1300cc class was extremely close all day, with Masahiro 
Takasaki and Hiroaki Hamada finishing second by the closest of margins 
- three seconds behind the winner of the A5 class!

Dave Whittock of Nissan Motorsports Europe added, "I'm chuffed to bits 
with Mark today as I knew he could do it on that big Resolfen stage of 
all of them. It's obviously disappointing to drop out whilst fighting 
for another top two finish on the RAC for the fourth year in a row, 
but it's really been an extremely good test for us with a car that is 
out of the box and we've learnt alot, especially with Yokohama."

"Of the Micra and the battles it's been going through, the Japanese 
had never sat in the car until the shakedown day last Friday so 
they've got stuck in and done their utmost best to try and uphold 
Geoff Jones' record from last year when he won the class by over 36 
minutes. However, the car in this 'Performance Specification' is a 
vehicle that has proved it can be at the top of classes on 
International rallies. It is only a shame that the Kit car Micra with 
Geoff didn't get beyond the second day."

Jim Fullwood from Yokohama tyres was also delighted, "We deveploped a 
new construction for rough stages and they were tested to the limit on 
some of the stages today - at times it was amazing that we got through 
some of them without puncturing, but at least we've proved that they 
don't! It's a new car with tyres that are always being developed so if 
we can do this on it's first event, there is a huge amount of 
potential in there and I can't wait until next year to see what it 
does."

At the front of the field, Colin McRae won the event overall ahead of 
Juha Kankkunen, but the main story was the fact that Tommi Mkinen won 
his second World Driver's title.

That leaves Nissan Motorsports Europe to work towards 1998 and their 
planned World Rally Championship forays with the Almera GTi, whilst 
Geoff Jones and Rhydian Welson will be doing the British Rally 
Championship in the Micra Kit Car in association with TR Fastenings.

Keep in touch -  e-mail to: toby@the1817co.demon.co.uk