Lanarkshire junior driver Alick Kerr got his 2010 Scottish Rally Championship campaign off to a superb start taking second place on the Inverness based Snowman Rally. Kerr, who has teamed up with experienced Elgin navigator Neil Shanks for the season turned in a composed drive in difficult conditions in the Leaker Direct Rangemaster backed Subaru Impreza.

In the run up to the event, all talk was of the weather conditions the 120+ crews would face, and fresh snow falls just before the event turned the Inverness countryside into a winter wonderland of snow and ice.

In the wintry conditions there were only really 2 tyre choices, snow or ice rubber, and Kerr’s decision to go with snow tyres for the day proved crucial.

“From last years event I knew how important the correct tyres were, and for me the obvious choice was to go with snow rubber. I was a bit worried with absolutely no snow in Inverness on Saturday morning, but by the time Neil & I arrived at the start of stage one we were certain it was the right choice” commented the Bags Online and Opie Oils backed driver.

Despite feeling that they had been a touch conservative through stage one the stage time proved otherwise and the pair, on their first event together, were a strong second behind pre event favourite Jock Armstrong in his Subaru who would go on to dominate the event. The second stage didn’t go quite as well with 2 overshoots on the icy surface dropping the pair back down to 3rd overall by the time they reached first service.

Stages 3 and 4 would be crucial to the outcome of the event with the two stages providing half the competitive distance with a second visit to service sandwiched in-between. It was here that Kerr that made his move with a brace of second quickest times behind the dominant Armstrong moving him back into a strong second place splitting the pre season championship favourites Armstrong and Mitsubishi driver Mike Faulkner. With only the short final stage to go Alick & Neil had opened up a 40 second cushion over Faulkner and could afford to relax their pace to consolidate their position.

A fifth top 10 stage time saw Kerr do just that, returning back to the Inverness finish in a career best second place, and providing a fantastic basis for a championship challenge from one of Scotlands top rated young drivers;

“Today has been a dream start to the season. The Snowman is always a difficult event, but today’s result is more than I hoped for. I was targeting a top 5 finish but to get onto the podium is fantastic. It’s a great start to my partnership with Neil and hopefully we can continue our championship challenge on the Border Counties next month. I’d like to thank our sponsors for their continued support, and I hope this result repays their faith in me” commented Foundry Engineer Kerr after spraying the champagne at the finish. 

The teams next event is the Jedburgh based Brick & Steel Border Counties Rally on Saturday 20th March. For further information on the team and partnership opportunities, please go to www.alickkerr.com