Bothwell rally driver Alick Kerr scored another strong result on his second outing in the Bags Online Subaru Impreza, finishing well on the Kelso-based Jim Clark Reivers Rally.

The result boosts 20 year-old Kerr’s standing in the Hankook Scottish Rally Championship as the Scottish rally season reaches its midpoint. Nineteenth overall and seventh in class is a very respectable feat in itself, but it doesn’t quite tell the full story of Alick and stand-in co-driver Steven Brown’s day.

Serious vibrations on one stage from a loose bolt on the Subaru’s bottom hub and a lack of tarmac brakes slowed the crew’s progress over the eight stages on the closed Borders roads.

Even without the bigger tarmacspecification brakes, Kerr and Inverness navigator Brown still managed to set third-fastest time on the second run through Ayton and then went on to stop the clocks fifth-quickest on the penultimate Wedderburn test. Had it not been for the bottom hub issue early on, the BagsOnline.co.uk and Opie Oils-backed Subaru would have been on course for a top-ten finish.

“We were coming up to a hairpin where a whole load of mud and loose stuff had been dragged onto the road, and it was enough to send the back end of the car wide and knock the bank,” recounts Kerr. “That must have loosened a bolt somewhere, because for the next six miles we couldn’t go above 40mph without massive vibrations running through the car and making us think the wheels were about to fall off.

I reckon it cost us a good two to two and a half minutes.” Thankfully Alick’s service crew were able to tighten the bolt and send the Impreza on its way in one piece – and by the end of the all-asphalt Clark, Kerr was full of praise for his new car. “Even though we didn’t have the tarmac brakes fitted, it was a good day with some great stage times and cracking weather,” reckons the lanarkshire driver.

“The car is certainly quick enough, it managed to get up to 120mph in places and even on the first stage we were catching and passing folk.” The next outing for the Alick Kerr Motorsport team will be the Dumfries-based RSAC Scottish Rally on Saturday 27 June, the fifth round of the 2009 Hankook Scottish Rally
Championship.

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