The Isle of Man 2009 was always going to re-write the Rallying history books. For the first time ever an Irishman led the British Rally Championship as the second half of the championship began to unfold. Mark Higgins would make history if he won the event for the fifth time. As things transpired over an enthralling 2 days of rallying, the pendulum swung in favour of Mark Higgins who created his own bit of history by becoming the most successful driver in the illustrious history of the event. His Co-driver, Bryan Thomas also draws equal to Derek Ringer with 4 wins.

Even Mark Higgins had to put his hand up at the finish and give full credit to Keith Cronin and Greg Shinnors who had 10 fastest times over the weekend and until their puncture on stage 18 the rally looked as if it would go down to the wire. That was not to be, however, having come to Mark Higgins home turf and set 10 fastest times en- route to second place is something the South of Ireland lads can be proud of! Lets bear in mind that Mark Higgins has, in the past been fastest on all of the stages.

Although triple BRC Champion Mark Higgins also had his few problems let us not forget that the Cronin Motorsport Evo 9 dropped over a minute on Friday evening when the rear differential succumbed to the pressure and was changed in Service in 12 minutes by the TTEC personnel. That minute time loss that was incurred ensured that the Rally leaders dropped only to second place, because the pace of the leading duo was enough to ensure that they still had more than a 2 minute cushion to third place.

Interestingly, the 2009 BRC Championship Regulations do not allow for the instance of a tied score during the championship, therefore the Championship now has joint leaders, both crews tied on 76 points(not bad out of a possible 80 to date).

This means that they are both 19 points ahead of third placed Alaister Fisher, who is also well ahead of fourth place. However, the championship, as in all 4 rallies so far, is a two horse race and the eventual winner will make history either way.

Hopefully the Irishmen can go on and take an historic victory that we have awaited since Billy Coleman / Dan Sullivan won in 1974. Despite that historic achievement, on that occasion they won the championship without winning a single event, consistency proving to be a key factor.

This years batch of young pretenders also have consistency on their side with 2 wins and 2 second places so far, lets hope that consistency and outright speed will take the paddies to the top!