We head to the Jim Clark Rally this weekend and it is definitely going to be another very tough rally. It is the first tarmac round of the championship and it will also be my first time competing on the event. This won’t be too strange as the first two rounds of the championship were also new territory for me. Therefore, I will approach this event in the same manner I approached the first two rounds, that is to try and start the rally at a fast and comfortable pace and build my speed up throughout the rally. If I find myself in a position near the end of the event that enables me to fight for the win then I will definitely do just that.

The competition again will be very tough here; I know Mark Higgins is very fast on the tar as he won all three sealed surface rounds of the championship last year and he will be especially hard to beat here as he has won this event numerous times in the past. As this is the first time the championship takes to the tar, I don’t really know how fast we will have to go if we want to stay with Mark or some of the other competitors for that matter. I have done other tarmac rallies before and the first two rallies I won were on tarmac, but it’s hard to know just how fast we will have to go here to be on the pace. I won’t be long finding out though and that’s for sure.

From what I’ve heard about this event and from what I’ve seen of it on tv it is incredibly fast with some very big jumps. The surface over there also looks different to the tarmac roads that we rally on in Ireland therefore it will probably take a few stages to learn just how much grip there is for cornering and braking. Whenever it rained there it looked especially tricky. It is also the first event this year that will be incorporating some night stages. I haven’t done a lot of stages in the dark but I am looking forward to them all the same.

All in all, it is going to be a very tough event as there are a lot of unknowns. It is another new event for me and as it is the first tarmac round of the championship it is hard to know what the level of competition will be like. This is the BRC however so know doubt it will be tough, but, we had a good tarmac test as ‘00’ on the ‘Lakes’ and I am confident that the car is in good shape. The rest is up to me!