The Jim Clark Rally’s new beginning
After a four-year hiatus the Jim Clark Rally successfully returned in 2019. By John Fife
The Jim Clark Rally has always been a popular fixture in the Scottish Borders as well as much further afield in the world of rallying. When first introduced in 1970, forest rallying in Scotland was still in its infancy. Prior to that, the Scottish Rally Championship comprised of several Targastyle navigational rallies before introducing timed tests on Forestry Commission roads.
The first Jim Clark Rally therefore offered a mix of tests and stages with a variety of road surfaces, from three-ply farm tracks and the Tarmac of the old Charterhall Race Circuit to proper forest and private roads. The introduction of those original forest stages would soon enter rallying folklore with names like Twiglees and Castle O’er, Elibank and Cardrona, while the sections of private roads included Sisterpath, Sandys Gears, West Morriston and the Bield.
Fast forward to 2019 and – despite a fouryear hiatus – the event remains as popular as ever despite some of these routes no longer being used.
This year’s edition was not without its issues, as two stages on Friday had to be cancelled due to the adverse weather and a further two were affected due to incidents concerning competitors. Nevertheless, at the post-event debrief at the start of this month the organising team were rightly pleased with how well the return of the Jim Clark Rally had gone.
“I think the team did a marvellous job this year and that’s a great boost ahead of next year’s event,” says deputy clerk of the course, Colin Smith.
“One of the most pleasing things has been the feedback not just from the Duns townsfolk but those in the villages and along the rally route. Of course, there are one or two who disagree with it, but on the whole this has been a positive experience and the vast majority of folk have welcomed ‘their rally’ back. That’s a good sign too. It’s not just ‘a’ rally, they call it ‘our’ rally.
“At the debrief, this year’s team more or less confirmed as one they wanted to help again next year so that’s us off to a good start, especially since it’s only six months away! We all felt the rally ran well, but we all felt we can do better next May with what we’ve learned, or relearned.”
As Smith rightly points out, the rally will return to its traditional May date next year and will become part of the Scottish Rally Championship once again.
It’s been a steep learning curve for all concerned over the past few years, a period when the return of the rally was never guaranteed following a fatal accident in 2014.
The Jim Clark Rally was not run while a joint Fatal Accident Inquiry was promptly held, both for the Jim Clark and the unrelated spectator tragedy on the previous year’s Snowman Rally.
The outcome of the FAI in November 2017 recommended the adoption of 29 new safety requirements before the events would be allowed to resume.
These were immediately accepted and implemented by the UK’S governing body, the Motor Sports Association (now Motorsport UK), bar tracking.
A nationwide tracking system has yet to be universally adopted, although both the Jim Clark and Mull Rally used the Sporttraxx system which Craig Parry operates through his Onthepacenote rally services company.
Once the findings of the FAI were published, so began the push for new legislation which would allow the event to return. A new Bill was presented to the Scottish Parliament in March this year and was signed off in April.
Throughout the FAI process the organising team had continued their route planning and paperwork in readiness for the event to resume. This was imperative as there was a need to run an event this year to ensure next year’s event could be granted a permit.
That ongoing process was hugely time consuming. Alongside ongoing rally planning, the senior team officials worked as part of the SAG (Safety Advisory Group) which comprised of Scottish Borders Council, Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service, Scottish Fire and Rescue and the Roads Dept plus many other interested parties and organisations.
This year’s event certainly felt like a new beginning, as everyone had taken lessons from previous tragic events, including spectators.
There was evidence of self-policing as some spectators started to drift closer to the stages after the opening cars had gone through, but they were called back by other spectators. That in itself is a very encouraging sign.
“Looking beyond next year, the new Act of Parliament will allow us to do an awful lot more,” says chairman of the Jim Clark, Professor Dan Wright.
“For instance, in the past we were restricted to roads within Berwickshire, but under the new legislation we can go beyond the county boundaries. That opens up some fantastic new stretches of road in the Lothians to the south of Edinburgh.
“However, we won’t be too ambitious too soon, but we have additional support promised from Event Scotland should we wish to expand our horizons.
“At a more local level, we used the new Jim Clark Museum premises this year ahead of the rally for recce signing-on. That went down well with rally crews taking time to look around, and make donations.
“In fact the museum staff have asked if they can be involved again next year, perhaps with a big screen showing live action.”
Given what has transpired over recent years, the herculean efforts and determination of a small band of dedicated volunteers were rewarded with a hugely successful and well received event last month.
Now they’ve got to do it all over again for May 29-31!