2025 Jim Clark Rally to feature longest route for over a decade

The Duns-based rally, first run in 1970 as a tribute to two-time Formula One world champion Clark following his death two years prior at the age of 32, is back for its 49th edition from Friday, May 23, to Sunday, May 25.

May 25’s Jim Clark Reivers’ Rally is also being extended and will now take in 60 competitive stage miles, after going up from 43 to 55 last year.

The Langton stage brought back last year after being out of use for over a decade returns and it’s joined by another route last used in 2012, at Bothwell, and a reversed version of the Fogo test.

All three of those stages will be run twice on the evening of the 23rd, totalling 46 miles, after a ceremonial start in Duns town centre.

The 24th’s racing will begin at Langton too, followed by a revised Edrom and Blackadder stage and a new one at Polwarth stage, all to be run twice, adding up to 55 miles.

The event, now with Eyemouth-based raffle firm Borders Competitions as main sponsor rather than Alloa-based Beatson’s Building Supplies, will form a round of 2025’s British Rally Championship once again, along with the National Asphalt Rally Championship, the North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship and the Association of North-East and Cumbria Car Clubs Championship.

The 25th’s one-day Reivers’ Rally will start in Duns as well and take in stages at Westruther, Mack’s Mill, Scott’s View and Eccles, with drivers contesting the Scottish Rally Championship and Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship taking part.

“We are very proud to release our outline route for the 2025 Jim Clark Rally and we are confident that it offers one of the most challenging and exciting propositions for many years,” said Dan Wright, chairman of the event’s organisers, the Jim Clark Memorial Motor Club.

“We have always wanted to ensure the rally remains progressive and challenging for the hundreds of competitors who make the trip to the Borders to contest the event, and the changes to the route this year will be enjoyed by crews and fans alike.

“The reintroduction of Bothwell for the Friday night loop adds an extra dimension to the opening leg, and most competitors will not have done the stage in this way before.

“We have also introduced additional miles on several other stages to give over 100 competitive stage miles for the Jim Clark Rally and 60 for the Reivers’, making it one of the longest events in over a decade.

“We look forward to welcoming everyone to Duns in May.”

Duns drivers Euan Thorburn, Garry Pearson and Dale Robertson all managed top-ten finishes on home turf at 2024’s rally.

Thorburn was the only one to manage an overall podium place, finishing third in a total time of 1:15:27.9, with Paul Beaton, of Inverness, as co-driver, in a Volkswagen Polo GTi R5, but Pearson, with Daniel Barritt alongside, was third among the British Rally Championship challengers competing, and sixth all told, in his Ford Fiesta Rally2 in 1:16:34.8.

Fellow Dinger Robertson and Kelso co-driver Douglas Redpath were ninth overall in 1:19:39.5.​

Four-time British rally champion Keith Cronin, also in a Rally2, was the British championship’s leading man and winner overall in 1:14:59.8, with Mikie Galvin accompanying him.

That was his third win at the Borders rally, following prior first-place finishes in 2012 and 2022, making him the joint most successful driver in the half-century-plus history of the event, along with fellow Irishman Andrew Nesbitt and Roger Clark.

The last Borderer to win the main event was Kelso’s late Dom Buckley Snr back in 1998, with Neil Ewing as co-driver.