Lanarkshire teenager Alick Kerr (19) got some tarmac miles under his belt and showed his pace on a sealed surface as he tackled the Scottish Borders’ country lanes on the Sunday Jim Clark Reivers Rally, even if things didn’t go quite according to plan.

Kerr and co-driver Drew Sturrock (18) were forced to retire their Leaker Direct Rangemaster Fiesta ST from the fourth round of the Scottish Rally Championship after getting stuck in a ditch on the penultimate stage. Whilst damage to the car was mainly superficial, the white and orange machine was stuck fast and the crew had to call it a day.

Up until that point, Alick and Drew had been enjoying an action-packed day as they explored the limits of the two wheel drive Ford Fiesta ST. “Before we got stuck in the ditch I’d already been off twice, having overshot a corner on the opening Bothwell stage and hit a tree square on on the next stage,” admitted Kerr, who coincidentally hails from Bothwell in Lanarkshire. “What put an end to our day was a patch of gravel on a corner that had been dragged out by a car in front. I turned in fine, but when I straightened up the car went off and slid into a ditch.”

Foundry engineer Kerr was nonetheless happy with his early pace as he took the current car out on tar in anger for the first time. “We though the times were rubbish, but we actually seemed to be doing well – I don’t know if it was because I was driving smoothly or what but the times on the early stages were good,” reckons Alick, who heads to Wales in just under a week for the Severn Valley Rally.

“Kris Hall – one of the Fiesta frontrunners – was doing the parallel international rally and in spite of our excursion, we were only twelve seconds down on him which was encouraging.”

Thankfully, the physical and points damage for Alick and Drew isn’t too great – the rallyending off led to mainly panel damage, whereas many rival Scottish Championship crews opted to sit the tarmac-based Reivers out. The team are now turning their attention to refettling the car ahead of the next round of the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, which is the Severn Valley Rally down in Wales on Saturday, 31 May.

“There was very little damage on impact – we need a new rear lamp cluster, wing and wing mirror, but other damage can be repaired later in the year,” comments Team Principal Donald Kerr. “It’ll be a struggle to get the car ready for the Severn Valley but we’ll make it – all hands to the pump before we leave!”

Further information on the team can be found at www.alickkerr.com