Event: Jim Clark Reivers 2012

Overall Position	Class Position	Seeded Position
6	5	16

8th overall, 6th placed in SRC, car in 1 piece!!

With the car painted black and covered in its new livery, we started the rally heading to stage 1 with hopes of a dry day. Reports of rain in Bothwell meant that the Dunlop X22 slick tyres were not the tyre of choice, but with no other tyres with us, we had no option to change. Bothwell is a stage I have completed twice before and therefore i knew the tight twisty sections had to be treated with caution, especially in the wet as 1 mistake could end the day for us. We set off and baring a couple of little mistakes, we had a clean run through the stage, 8th quickest overall in 8mins 21secs. That was 1 of my best starts to an event and the car, although slippy in the wet, felt good. The second run through Bothwell saw me shed 18 seconds from the previous time, 7th quickest through the stage and sitting in 7th place overall.

With the rain drizzling all the way back to service, we dashed to get a set of Dunlop Intermediate tyres in case the rain was on for the day but, as reports filtered through that the afternoon stages were dry, the decision was made to stick with slick tyres. We made our way to stage 3, Eccles 1, I knew that we had to maintain the pace as a host of cars were nipping at our heels, separated only by a matter of seconds. The stage went well for me, however, with only a mile to the end of the stage, we had a massive moment which almost cost us dearly. Flat out through a L1/C into a R1, the back passenger side wheel clipped the wet grass and sent us skidding down the narrow road, fish tailing from side to side. Luckily, i kept the power on and somehow managed to correct it (more luck than anything) and we crawled to the finish, hearts racing! We were 10th equal through the stage. With my heart rate back to near normal, we set off at stage 4, Swinton 1. Another solid run through here saw me 11th quickest through here in 9 mins 32 secs and sitting 8th overall going back to 2nd service.

With the car running well, a quick check of the brakes and tyres was all that was required before heading to the final stage of the day, Swinton 2. A re-run through the stage went without incident, seeing us knock 5 seconds from our previous time and cementing our final placing of 8th overall for the Rally. With 2 competitors in front of me not registered for the SRC 2012, it meant I was 6th placed overall for points, equalling my best ever result – 6th placed in the Merrick Rally in 2011. Thanks again to all that made the weekend happen. Lisa for expertly co-driving me to the finish, Stav and his team for looking after the car and all the organisers and marshals for an extremely enjoyable day! Pictures and video clips on the website – www.chriscollie.com