Steve Higgins reached the Carmarthen finish of the Roger Albert Clark (RAC) Rally last week - the longest car rally in the UK for 30 years.

Designed to replicate the Lombard RAC Rally events of the 1970s, the event had begun five days earlier in Carlisle and offered crews 330 stage miles across areas of England, Scotland and Wales.

Higgins was tackling the event in his two-stroke 1965 Saab 96, one of the oldest cars in the rally. He was joined in the WDS Limited-backed car by Yorkshireman Sam Spencer, the pair competing on the event together for the third time.

The action got underway with four stages on the Thursday evening in Northumbria and the duo started well over the opening 50-mile leg.

Friday saw the event move into the legendary Kielder forest with 100 stage miles over eight stages.

The Saab suffered an electrical problem that cost them two minutes on the second stage of the day.

Repairs were effected at the first service halt of the day but the time required to try and rectify the problem put the crew only three minutes short of the maximum lateness.

Thankfully they were able to continue without any penalty and the problem seemed to have been cured until the car cut out approaching the start line of the sixth stage of the day.

After several minutes of investigation the problem was traced to a blown fuse and they were able to start the stage, only for the fuse to blow again midway through, forcing them to stop and replace it again at the roadside.

Another service halt followed where a more permanent repair was completed before they headed out into the darkness to tackle the final two stages of the evening.

By now snow was beginning to fall and conditions became more and more treacherous with each passing minute.

The final stage of the day was 17 miles and, with up to two inches of snow on the ground and falling snow reducing visibility to near zero, it was a battle of survival.

Having passed several stricken cars, Higgins and his co-driver reached the end of the stage unscathed and headed back to Carlisle for the overnight halt.

As the night progressed Storm Arwen was in full force and the rally ground to a halt with trees blocking nearly all roads in and out of the Kielder area.

With some crews unable to reach the overnight halt, and a large number of trees blocking the forest stages and access roads, the event organisers took the difficult decision to cancel the eight stages scheduled to run in the Scottish forests on the Saturday leg of the rally.

Restarting in Welshpool on Sunday morning, Higgins and Spencer still had more than 110 miles to complete with the technical Welsh stages made even more difficult by patchy ice and snow.

The opening stage had several miles of compacted snow and ice, but Higgins kept the classic Swedish car on the road despite a distinct lack of grip for several miles.

Three more stages saw the ’96’ crew complete the penultimate day with no more damage than a loose exhaust manifold bolt, despite the atrocious conditions claiming a number of the top seeds.

The final day again started cold and icy with five stages to complete over 40 miles.

Despite being so close to the finish, the stalwart Manx rally driver kept pushing and got quicker throughout the day as he and his Yorkshire co-driver battled with several crews over the closing stages.

Higgins and Spencer finished 71st overall from 140 starters and first in class.

l Their thanks go to Malbrad Saab Specialists for preparing the car and WDS Limited for supporting them for the event.