Jim Clark Rally - 27th & 28th May
The JRM Rally Team is pleased to be continuing its assault on this year's Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship with Tom Cave, who has driven the team's Mitsubishi Evolution X in the first three rounds of the season. The fourth in the calendar is the first asphalt surface event of the year - this weekend's Jim Clark Rally - where JRM hopes it can help put the 19-year old from Aberdovey's bid for the British title back on track.
Together with his co-driver Craig Parry from Llanymynech, Cave brought the JRM Mitsubishi home an impressive second in the first round of the Championship, February's Rallye Sunseeker. However, in the two events that followed - the Bulldog Rally of North Wales and the Kielder Forest-based Pirelli Rally - bad luck prevailed, with a minor off-road excursion and a puncture resulting in two non-finishes respectively.
The team hopes that the switch of road surface with see a return to better fortunes, even though this will be the first time Cave has driven the Mitsubishi he used for the previous three gravel rounds on tarmac. He therefore aims to familiarise himself with the car and its asphalt set-up during the pre-event shake-down on Friday morning.
JRM are no strangers to success on this event when, at last year's Jim Clark Rally, Gwyndaf Evans recorded the team's first ever International victory on asphalt driving another of its Mitsubishi Evolutions. With this achievement under its belt, JRM hopes that the data and experience gained in 2010 will help the team provide Cave with the best tool for the job.
The Jim Clark Rally is the UK mainland's only rally which is held on closed public roads, with all of its 140-miles of competition held in Berwickshire. The event gets underway on Friday evening with a ceremonial start in the centre of Duns. This is followed by six stages before the overnight halt at Kelso Racecourse, which also hosts the event's service area. A further ten stages take place on Saturday, with the finish in Duns scheduled for 18.30.
Team Quotes
Tom Cave
"I'm definitely looking forward to getting back in the JRM Evo X and getteing back into action. I'm sure the last two rallies will play on my mind to start with but, if I can find a rhythm and get my confidence back, then there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to have a good rally. I haven't driven the JRM car on tarmac before and, while it's physically a big car, other drivers say it's very good on asphalt."
John Barnes - Team Manager
"After winning this event last year, I'm confident that we have the car for the job. It would be great if we can achieve a good result this weekend, as we are all aiming to get Tom's campaign back on track and to see if we can still mount a challenge for the title. The Jim Clark is a long rally and there are a lot of factors that come into play, such as reliability, good pacenotes and, of course, the weather, which has a reputation of making grip levels a bit of a lottery. It's going to be an interesting event and the whole team is looking forward to it."
