THE raiding horde of Irish ashpalt specialists, led by the Skoda Fabia World Rally car of Derry's Eugene Donnelly, dominated the 39th running of the Jim Clark International Rally on the normally tranquil Berwickshire country lanes.
As the only event to be staged completely on closed-off public roads on the British mainland, the Jim Clark is a counter in both the British Rally and the Irish Tarmac Championships. Not surprisingly, the Tarmac specialists topped the leaderboard.
Irish Championship leader Donnelly found himself locked in a day-long ding-dong with the Subaru Impreza WRC of Meath's Tim McNulty. After swapping fastest times through the 17 blisteringly fast stages, Donnelly arrived at Kelso Racecourse after 150 breathless miles with a slender 23.2-seconds advantage.
"God, that was tough," Donnelly admitted. "Tim made life very, very hard for me and I was driving flat-out all day. I'm knackered. But what a terrific event; the Jim Clark is always one of the highlights of the season."
With the Impreza WRC of defending Irish champ Eamonn Boland third, just ahead of the Ford Focus pair of Gareth and Aaron MacHale, the leading BRC challenger – Manxman Mark Higgins – had to content himself with sixth overall.
A past Jim Clark winner and former British champion, Higgins – who scored maximum points because none of the Irish drivers registered in the BRC – battled all day with a recalcitrant Subaru Impreza which was underpower with a constant misfire and problems with its centre diff.
"Not the easiest day at the office," Higgins said afterwards. "We ended Friday night's six stages with a lead of almost two minutes and at one stage today it was down to just 2.6 seconds.
"Thankfully though the guys managed to sort the car out at the final service and we were able to go flat-out through the final three stages."
Championship leader and winner of the opening two rounds, Bantry's Keith Cronin, finished second BRC driver, and seventh overall in his Mitsubishi Evo IX 11.4s behind Higgins.
Duns driver Euan Thorburn bagged his best-ever British Championship finish when he brought his Subaru Impreza home in fourth place and ninth overall.
Dumfries 21-year-old David Bogie, who started the event looking to build on the podium finish he scored in the previous BRC round in Kielder Forest, retired on yesterday's opening stage. Midway through the 10-miler at Edrom his car stalled. Then, when he restarted it, the conrod shot through the engine, instantly wrecking the powerplant.
The full article contains 430 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
