A freshly built gearbox and a string of punctures didn’t stop junior rally driver Alick Kerr scoring another fine result on Saturday’s Merrick Forest Stages. The 21 year-old from Bothwell kept his cool to end the day sixth overall and third in class on the penultimate round of the Hankook MSA Scottish Rally Championship.

Kerr kept up the scorching run of form that has seen him classified among the top five Scottish title contenders on his last three outings in the Leaker Direct Subaru Impreza.

With final SRC scores based on competitors’ six best results from eight rounds, Alick can now go into the final round of the series – next month’s Colin McRae Forest Stages - knowing he is already guaranteed a highly respectable points tally.

The strong Merrick performance didn’t come without some hard graft from Alick and Marykirk co-driver Drew Sturrock, though. Two punctures over the course of the rally in the famous Glentrool forest complex – and the enforced use of a soft spare wheel at one point – conspired to slow the junior crew’s progress time and time again. Nonetheless, Alick and Drew kept their resolve throughout the day and were delighted to end up in sixth spot by the time they reached the finish in Newton Stewart.

“Given the quality of the entry for the Merrick this year, at the start of the day we would have been quite happy with sixth place and twenty-five Scottish Championship points,” admits Kerr. “Some very quick competitors had travelled from Ireland and England to enter the rally, so we’re very pleased to have done so well after all the trouble we had during the event itself.”

“We only finished rebuilding the gearbox a couple of days before the rally, so that was also in the back of my mind on the earlier stages,” the foundry engineer continues. “More importantly, the result means we’re looking good for winning our class in the Scottish championship and also finishing in the top ten in the overall standings.”

MSA Rally Academy member Drew Sturrock is in with an excellent chance of finishing the co-drivers’ title race inside the top three thanks to another top-five finish. “Because we have to discard our two lowest scores, the maths can get quite difficult at this time of year!” concedes Sturrock. “But I already have a lot of good scores this year, so a strong finish next time out can only improve my standing.”

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