Competitors will cover 130 miles of tarmac stages, beginning on Friday eveningSeveral crews in contention for a strong result on the Border roads
The Jim Clark Memorial Rally welcomes the Citroen Racing Trophy crews this weekend, as the DS3 R3-mounted crews will challenge 130 miles of closed road tarmac stages, on the Border roads.
Welsh man Tom Cave will leave the Duns start at number one, having finished second to Keith Cronin in this event last year. Tom has already got his championship campaign off to a strong start, finishing third in round onethe Pirelli Rally, which was held in Cumbria.
Number two seed this weekend is Alastair Fisher from Trillick, Northern Ireland. This will be Alastairs first tarmac event in a DS3, but hes feeling happy after a test session. I was very pleased with the car in Portugal and on the Pirelli, commented Alastair. Its a well-balanced car and it felt very smooth to drive on our tarmac test. Im really looking forward to the event, as they are good stages and fast too. It will be all go from the start with the Abbey St. Bathans test an important one on the first night.
Jukka Korhonen and co-driver, Marko Salminen, scooped the 4000 first prize on the opening Pirelli Rally with a dominant drive and it will be interesting to see if the fast Finns can continue that dominance on tarmac. The Autosport Technology team won the memorial rally last year however, so the car set up shouldnt be far away.
Jonny Greer finished third overall in last years event, and the Carryduff driver could be one to watch. An increase in pace during round one saw Greer able to climb up the order to finish fourth at the opening event.
Meanwhile, Scot, John MacCrone, was another star of the first round on his CRT UK debut, but he was one of many to suffer a puncture on stage five. A fastest time on the final stage illustrated that he is acclimatising fast to DS3 power and the 23-year-old is confident ahead of this weekends rally, having tackled this event twice before. The Mull man will of course receive great support from his home crowd.
County Tyrones Mark Donnellythis years Pirelli Star Driverhas been busy contesting two rallies. On the Tour of the Sperrins event he finished a fine seventh overall and the Northern Irishman also contested last weekends Cavan Stages, where he stopped early to allow co-driver Dai Roberts to catch a flight home. We werent worried about our times in those events, it was just about working with the suspension settings, and for me to try and learn more about setting the car up. I definitely feel happier now, said Mark.
Desi Henry also contested the same two events, recording two superb results; fifth overall on his home Tour of the Sperrins and 13th in Cavan. Desi and co-driver, Phil Clarke, could be very much to the fore on this Scottish sortie.
Young Welsh charger, Osian Pryce, is aiming to make up for a less than ideal start to the season. The Welshman scored no points in the opening round and he endured a testing time on the Isle of Man, too, as a gearbox hydraulic failure put him out of the Manx National event after three stages.
Carlisles Peter Taylor was more fortunate on the Manx National, finishing 13th and picking up useful tarmac mileage. This is a relatively local event for Peter, whose family run a holiday park close to the Kelso finish. Dundalks Brendan Cumiskey is looking forward to the Jim Clark after a tweak to the steering rack made his DS3 easier to drive and James Grint from Hitchin in Hertfordshire is also eager to get onto the tarmac roads.
The Jim Clark Rally starts on Friday evening and includes two stages around the town of Duns, the home town of the late Formula 1 World Champion, Jim Clark. The event finishes on Saturday afternoon in Kelso, after 16 special stages.
Citroen Racing Trophy UK- Drivers Championship- After Round 1
1st Jukka Korhonen 25pts 2nd Alastair Fisher 18
3rd Tom Cave 154th Jonny Greer 12
5th John MacCrone 106th Peter Taylor 6
