David Higgins extended his lead in the American Rally Association Championship standings with victory in the latest round at the weekend.

The Manxman and co-driver Craig Drew claimed a dominant win in Minnesota’s Muscatell Ojibwe Forests Rally as Higgins homes in on his 10th US title.

Round seven kicked off in the resort town of Detroit Lakes with a pair of Thursday night super special stages before moving north for two days of competition in the forests.

After the super specials, Higgins sat atop the field with a slim lead over his Subaru Motorsports USA team-mate.

Pastrana was competing in only his second stage rally event of the year but was hoping to get up to pace quickly on the early stages.

On Friday, mid-Wales based Higgins came out fast with the goal of building his lead against Pastrana and championship rival Barry McKenna.

With Pastrana suffering a puncture on stage five that dropped him to more than a minute behind his team-mate, the way was clear for Higgins.

By the end of the day, Higgins had built a lead of nearly a minute over McKenna’s second-place Ford and notched a perfect six stage wins.

The comfortable margin would allow him to shift to a more conservative strategy on Saturday as he focused on preserving his lead, which he did comfortably until the end of the rally.

Higgins said after the finish: ’Very glad to have win number three in the books.

’We built a good lead and kept the car clean, so really a great rally.

’From here we’ve got a solid lead going into the last two events of the year, so we’ll stay focused and try to get the job done next month in Pennsylvania.’

Higgins will face off against team-mate Oliver Solberg, 17-year-old son of former world champion Petter, at Pennsylvania’s Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally on September 13-14.