Mark Higgins and hic co-driver Bryan Thomas lead a very exclusive top entry away from Armagh this afternoon, for this Ulster Rally. The event is a counting round of both the Pirelli backed British and Irish Tarmac Championships. Mark leads the British series, while Eugene Donnelly and his co-driver Paul Kiely lead the Pirelli Tarmac series and start at 3 in their Corolla WRC. Sandwiched between these two is 2002 Ulster winner and former multiple Tarmac Champion Andrew Nesbitt. Andrew is the one all the top drivers rate as favourite, besides themselves of course! Last year’s Ulster winner Mark Higgins, a winner here in ’97 as well when he went on to become British Champion, commented, “I always love to rally here in Northern Ireland. The tarmac stages throw up a very unique challenge, with every different type of road. The weather always plays a part. Although the forecast is good, there are always slippy patches, especially the early morning Saturday stages. I think that, for me, there are several of the top Tarmac Championship drivers could be hard to beat, especially Andrew Nesbitt. The Focus I’m driving is the older model, Paul Birds’ actually. It’s not my usual car, what I call my lucky Focus, which was damaged on the Pendragon Rally last weekend.”

Andrew Nesbitt freely admits that he has been flat out with work in his Cross Refrigeration concern and his mind has been far from rallying, but now he is in 100% rally mode, so it is time to stand back! Andrew’s McKinstry prepared car has been readied to the ‘nth degree’, even the engine breathed on by the Prodrive Subaru engineers, so it should be the ‘absolute business’. One disappointment for the Nesbitt family is that Andrew’s son Graham, who won a junior rallycross race at Lyddon Hill on Monday, and who was to be co-driving for Tom McArdle in the National part of this Ulster Rally, won’t get started because they are on the reserves. That part of the rally is oversubscribed, although only 45 cars will start the International bit of the rally.

Eugene Donnelly said of his chances this weekend, “I’m looking forward to it. Obviously in the Corolla the possibly of a bit of rain would have helped us, made it more of  a level playing field, but we’ll give it a good go. My priority has to be the Tarmac Championship, and I can afford now to just clock up good scores. The pressure is on Derek (McGarrity), but we’ll see how it goes. Anything can happen on the rally - it’s a long way to go!” Derek McGarrity at 4 has his Impreza WRC S10 well revamped since the rigours of the Manx. While Tim McNulty at 5, who has Anthony Nestor co-driving this weekend in the Pierse backed Impreza S10, reckons he has plenty more to come from his Impreza. Tim feels that the latest Subaru is so sophisticated, so complicated – there are something like 47 different variations to the set-up of each wheel for example – that it takes a long time, many rallies, for someone such as himself to get the best out of the car.

Austin MacHale at 6, currently 2^nd in the Pirelli British series, reports all well with his Focus WRC and he is looking forward to the rally.  Peadar Hurson at 7 is making a welcome return to the stages in his Impreza, as is young Matthew Wilson (No8) following the injuries he received on the Wales International event when he crashed his Focus WRC into a tree. Matthew says he still has a little weakness in his right leg, but really he looks as fit as a flea. Eamonn Boland at 9 is driving the same Focus WRC that he used to good effect when he won the Galway Summer Rally last weekend. Eamonn admits he would rather be driving his Impreza on the Ulster, feeling that the suspension is set-up better for the roads here. However, JJ Fleming was driving that last weekend, and deranged the bodywork in a small accident. The damage turned out to be a little more than was first thought, so the Focus it is for Eamonn today.

David Higgins rounds off the top ten, the current British Rally Champion driving the first of the GpN cars on the rally. David’s Lancer has had a new engine fitted since its last outing. He says that the earlier gearbox difficulties are behind him, and that is forward from here. Behind David are many very talented GpN drivers, not least his team-mate Rory Galligan, as well as Garry Jennings, Colm Murphy, Seamus Leonard, Aaron McHale, Alan Nesbitt, Glenn Wilson and a whole lot more, in a variety of Imprezas and Lancers. Another point of great interest in the rally is the appearance of the new Ford Fiesta, in the hands of Justin Dale/Andrew Bargery. On top of that there are many class battles in store, and an interesting National event, including the visiting Tarmacadam Championship drivers. Drop-outs from the International advertised entry list include Sean Devine, Maurice Gass, John Mulholland and Robert Swann. Maurice Gass’s son Darren is doing the rally in a Saxo at No.44 with James McKee co-driving.