The Jim Clark Rally was a very mixed weekend for us. We eventually finished 2nd in the event which was the third round of the British Rally Championship.

On the very first stage, we were less than 5 seconds slower than Mark and I was not expecting to be this close to him as I felt I had not driven well on the stage. The second stage started well, as I was beginning to find my rhythm and was starting to push harder. Then about 3 miles in, disaster struck as I clipped a stone on the inside of a left hand bend and the tyre went down straight away. We had to do the remaining 9 miles with a front left puncture and we emerged from the stage having dropped close to 2 minutes to Mark. On the third stage we spun on the very first corner and at that point I thought it was just going to be one of those rallies to forget.

However, we went fastest on stage 4 and we were also fastest on the next 10 stages, closing the gap to Mark to just 2.6 seconds with 3 stages remaining. There was service before we were to contest these last 3 stages and tyre choice was the topic of conversation as it looked like it was going to rain. We made the decision to run on a cut slick and for the first 3 miles of the next stage they were the correct tyre choice as the road was relatively dry. However it had rained heavier on certain parts of the stages and I got caught out on the first wet section of road that I came to. The road was a lot more slippery than I had expected and I spun. We lost a lot of time with the spin but even more for the rest of the stage as I had no confidence in the tyres in the slippery conditions. With two stages remaining and one of those the short 2 miler around Duns I felt there was no point in going for broke in those conditions and drove through the last two stages cautiously so as not to get caught out again.

After 17 tough stages, we finished up second to Mark. Yes, on Friday evening, I would have settled for this result after losing so much time with the puncture, but I was very disappointed to lose out on the win, after clawing back so much time.

Retaining our lead in the BRC was, of course, vitally important. To lead at the halfway point in the Championship is comforting as all three of the rallies we have done so far have been on completely new territory. The remaining events I have some experience of, as we competed on the Isle of Man and Ulster last year as part of the Evo Challenge. We also competed on the Trackrod Rally last year, which was my first time making my own notes on Gravel. Hopefully the fact that we have previously competed on these events will work in our favour.