The Jim Clark Rally, the first of the tarmac rounds of the British Rally Championship. The team left on Wednesday morning for the long drive up to Kelso in Scotland. It took around 7 hours to reach Kelso. Wednesday night, we arrive at Kelso racecourse at 7pm for signing on. Kelso racecourse was also where rally hq andthe service area for the weekend was going to be. So once we had signing on done we headed up to our cottage which was situated outside of Kelso but was on the Swinton stage. Thursday morning, Tom and Alistair head off to RECCE, Simon, Mark and Dom stay at the cottage working on the car, the service area
opened at 2pm so we headed off to set the service up and sort the tyres out for the event. We headed over to Pirelli to order up the tyres, this was going to be a hard decision. The weather in Scotlandis forever changing. The whole weekend was going to be a gamble when it came to the tyres. We decided the best option was to go with 6 Slick tyres and 4 Intermediate tyres which we could cut into a full wet if we needed to. So now we had this sorted out it was back to the cottage to relax before shakedown in the morning. Friday morning and Tom was up early waking the team up. He was raring to go. 8am and we arrive at the service park, make sure all the wheel nuts are tight and Tom and Alistair head out to shakedown. Simon and Mark follow them to make any minor adjustments that needed to be made out there. Tom comes back and is happy 
with the car. The car gets a quick check over, new brake pads, the lamp pod gets put in the car for the late night stages. The team head off over to the restaurant to have lunch. 5pm and Tom and Alistair head off to the opening ceremony then off for the first 3 stages of the evening. The start was in the middle of Duns so spectators could get close to the cars when they were running. First 3 stages done and the tyre pressures in the car were wrong, Tom had ended up in 22ndplace. So time for regroup, basically re group is a area where the drivers have around 15 minutes to do changes to the car, eat something and get their lights fitted. Tyre pressures changed and they set off again. The next run of stages were in the dark and Tom manages to end the night in 20th.
Saturday morning, we have a 40 minute service at 8am. Tyres changed to slicks on the front and intermediates on the back with two spare intermediates, first 3 stages of the day and Tom brings the car back to service in 18th place, a few changes to the car, tyres changed and they are back out for the next 2 stages. Stage 10 and 11, Tom pulls back even
more time, he is up to 14th overall, brilliant by the looks of it he is starting to get used to the car on the tarmac. Back into service, but Tom has had a problem, we get a phone call on the way back to service to tell us that he had got a puncture in the stage and the tyre had done the right front wing in and he had lost the brakes in the last two stages. So into service and all hands on deck, Mark sets about getting the brakes back for Tom, Dom discusses with Mark and Tom what tyres he wants and gets them on the car, Simon sets about trying to get the front wing back in place. Tom goes out of service but disaster, the stages are a good 20 miles away and it
turns out it has rained out there. Tom on the last set of stages tries to push but the main aim is to keep the car on the road. He manages on stage 13 to put a 6th fastest stage time in and by he end of the rally he has brought the car home in 13th, 5th in BRC 4WD Category, and 6th in Class R4.
Tom would like to thanks Labcraft for their support on this event and Lucas Oils for supplying the Engine, Gearbox and Diff oils and all the other Greases etc for this event.
The next event is Rally Ulster in Ireland, we now have a 2 month break, in these months 
we have scheduled alot of testing and development on the car. Check back regularly for more photos and videos from the tests.
Thanks
Tom, Alistair, Simon, Mark and Dom