DANIEL Barritt continued his winning ways by guiding David Higgins to victory in the Group N class on last weekend's Scottish Rally.

The pair made a late entry to the event - round three of the British Rally Championship - after winning the Susquehannock Trail ProRally in America five days earlier.

And following their Group N victory on the Rally of Wales, the Hapton-based navigator and his Welsh driver were firm favourites for the two-day event, which covered 12 special stages totalling 124 gravel miles in the forests around Dumfries.

But their bid for a top three place was hampered by a series of broken driveshafts on their Barretts-sponsored Subaru Impreza.

Third quickest on the opening Loch Grannoch test, Higgins and Barritt, pictured, upped the pace on the next stage, Black Loch, to take second fastest time to their Finnish group N rival Tapio Laukkanen, driving an identical car.

However, they lost over three minutes with a snapped driveshaft on the startline of stage four and could only post 15th fastest in the process, dropping the pair down to 5th overall.

Another broken driveshaft, this time on the longest stage of the rally, the 19-mile-long Ae, could have spelled the end of their bid for a second successive success.

But in typically determined fashion, the duo set about clawing back the lost time in the rapidly deteriorating conditions.

Fastest on the 6-mile Twiglees stage - beating eventual winner Jonny Milner's Toyota Corolla World Rally Car - Higgins and Barritt repeated the feat on the final stage of the day to cement their place on the podium with a well-earned third overall - and the group N trophy.

But their was no happy ending for Darwen navigator Mike West, who was partnering Cambridge driver James Smith in the Volkswagen Polo Challenge.

After failing to finish either of the opening round of the one-make championship, the pair were looking to claim their first points of 2002.

Their hopes of getting round were knocked back as early as the first stage when they suffered a double puncture on their PowerZone of Padiham-prepared car.

A fightback to seventh in class came to nothing when they were forced to retire on stage four when an electrical sensor malfunctioned and cut all the power.