Borders rally driver Garry Pearson hit by clutch trouble at start of new British Rally Championship season

The 31-year-old had to settle for sixth place in the season’s opener, Cumbria’s Malcolm Wilson Rally, at the weekend but, having picked up his first-ever championship podium place in his home-town of Duns last May, he’s hoping to top that next time out.

“Up next is the Jim Clark, my home rally, so I'm really looking forward to that,” he said.

“We think we've got a pretty good package on Tarmac, so hopefully we can try and improve on our third place from last year.”

Pearson hadn’t taken part in the Cockermouth-based event before, so, after not having competed for four months, he and stand-in co-driver Hannah McKillop had been planning to play it safe and prioritise getting some points on the leaderboard in their Skoda Fabia R5 rather going all out for a top-three place and risking ending up empty-handed.

But just to make things that task that extra bit more complicated, winter weather hit the region and forced a major reshuffle of the rally's itinerary - reducing the overall mileage to just 40 and providing competitors with only five special stages instead of the planned 10.

Pearson contented himself with recording the seventh-fastest time for the opening stage of the new season but was hit by clutch issues after that, leading to a stall on the Grizedale South start-line.

A repair job put him back in the reckoning, however, and a couple of top-five stage times earned him sixth place and eight championship points come the end of the event and he says he was happy enough with that in the circumstances.

“It's been a difficult rally, so I’m delighted to get to the finish, to be honest,” said Pearson.

“I think it's fair to say it's been a tough start to our season, but we’ve got some decent points on the board and that’s what we came here for.

“Considering the issues we faced – lack of seat-time and familiarity with the stages and then, of course, our clutch problem – I think we have to be happy with this result.

“For sure, it was a character-building day, but that will stand us in good stead for the future.

“Hannah did an amazing job on the notes.”

McKillop, of Newstead, near Melrose, was standing in as Pearson’s new co-driver, Burnley’s Dan Barritt, was unable to compete as he’s still recovering from shoulder surgery.

“Hannah did the scheduling for the team for 2022 and has done a lot of our testing with me – she’s actually done the last two tests with me and was fresh from a Snowman Rally win with Jock Armstrong the weekend before in the Scottish Rally Championship,” Pearson added.

“Unfortunately, Dan’s recovering from a shoulder operation and it is taking a wee bit longer to heal than first hoped, but the plan is to have Dan in from the Jim Clark Rally onwards.”

French driver Adrien Fourmaux tops the championship leaderboard with 30 points after winning its opening round in his Ford Fiesta Rally2, with Keith Cronin second on 18, Elliot Payne third on 15, James Williams fourth on 12, Callum Black fifth on ten and Pearson sixth on eight.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Pearson added: “We’re still working hard behind the scenes and away from the rallies and I certainly want to be challenging at the front this year.

“I think we've got a realistic chance of being able to win when the conditions and the event suit us.

“I do think that's on the cards this year, but, as everybody knows, it takes a lot to string the whole championship together, and although that’s a long-term objective, to try and win the championship, we’re also realistic and we know who we’re up against.

“To win, everybody needs something to go their own way and that’s not always easy.”