Duns driver Garry Pearson celebrating first-ever Jim Clark Reivers’ Rally victory

Pearson and co-driver Hannah McKillop are contesting both championships at the moment but are weighing up prioritising one over the other to maximise their chances of securing further silverware.

In a field of 116 crews from across the UK and as far afield as Iceland and New Zealand, Pearson, 34, ended up going toe to toe with fellow Dinger Euan Thorburn, winner of the Sunday rally the last three times it went ahead, for this year’s podium top spot.

Pearson and Northern Irish sidekick McKillop, 32, led from the front in their M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 with four stage wins but Thorburn, accompanied by Highlander Paul Beaton, claimed three in his Volkswagen Polo R5 and stayed on his fellow Borderer’s tail right up until the final stretch of the 58-mile rally at Westruther, Scott’s View, Roxburgh and Eccles, round three of 2026’s Scottish championship.

In that final stage of eight, Thorburn, 39, was looking to close a seven-second gap on Pearson as he went for broke, but it was broke he ended up with as he was hit by a puncture a mile from the end, curtailing his attempt to catch up with his near-neighbour.

Clocking 46:59.7, that was Pearson’s first reivers’ rally win ever and his second in this year’s Scottish championship after coming up trumps in round two, March’s Tweed Valley-based Border Counties Rally, and he was chuffed to bits to have finally notched up a home victory.

“This is definitely a bucket-list moment,” he said.

“That was a very tense battle with Euan, and credit to him, he pushed me all the way and we couldn’t let up at all, so I’m absolutely over the moon.

“Euan doesn’t rally much these days but he’s won it three times in a row because he’s very quick on these roads, so it’s good to finally to take this crown off him, and we’ll try and keep it.

“It’s a dream come true for me to win the reivers’ rally – it’s going to take a while for me to understand it, I think.

“Growing up in Duns, the Jim Clark Rally and the reivers’ rally are such a big part of the year and were definitely responsible for me becoming a rally driver. To have my name on the roll of honour makes me feel extremely proud.

“We knew we had a chance of winning but we also knew we had to dig deep and do the job, and that’s exactly what I feel Hannah and I did.

“We drove an error-free rally and the M-Sport team did a fantastic job turning out an immaculate car to drive.”

Thorburn was second 52 seconds back, with Angus driver Hugh Brunton and sidekick Drew Sturrock third in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

Having now competed in two rounds of both the British Rally Championship and its Scottish opposite number, sitting fourth in the former’s standings and also well placed to bid for another Scottish title to add to 2021’s, Pearson is weighing up his options as to how best to proceed, saying: “We have a bit of thinking to do about which one we focus on because it’s tough to do both right the way through the year.

“I am thinking about going for the Scottish championship now because that’s us won the two events we’ve competed in, but at the same time, I would really love to contest the British championship because I’ve never won that, so we’ll take some time to savour this and then we’ll sit down and work it out.

“The points we scored leave us with a decision to make about whether we continue with the rest of the Scottish Rally Championship season, as we now have two wins from two starts.

“We also scored some solid points for the British championship on Friday and Saturday too, so we’re still well positioned to fight for that as well.”

Pearson and Thorburn had already gone head to head in the Jim Clark Rally’s British championship stages on Friday and Saturday, with the former finishing fifth overall and the latter sixth, separated by just 22 seconds after almost 100 miles of rallying.

The main event yielded another first-time winner in the form of Ayr’s Max McRae and co-driver Cammy Fair in their Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, watched by the former’s father Alister and grandfather Jimmy, both former British rally champions.

After winning the final round of last year’s British championship, McRae and Fair were hit by a puncture in the first round of this year’s opener in Wales, April’s Seven Valley Stages, dropping them to fourth, but they served notice of the speed they’re capable of mustering by winning the last eight of ten stages at Swintonmill, Bothwell, Abbey St Bathans, Polwarth, Blackadder and Manderston to pip Welsh pair Meirion Evans and Dale Furniss, in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, to the post in a total time of 1:13:35.1.

The Scots are now just three leaderboard points behind Osian Pryce and James Morgan, third-placed finishers in Friday and Saturday’s event, also in a Yaris Rally2.

McRae, 21, said: “I am just delighted to win. This was my fourth time, though on the first one the car broke 100m into the first stage, so it is nice to come back and have everything just go perfect.

“The Jim Clark is such a difficult rally to win because you have a lot of great teams, such high speed and massive commitment from beginning to end, and it means a lot to me to win because this is a well-known rally with a lot of history.

“The last six months have been pretty rapid, since we got into the new car, and I think there’s still a lot more to come as well, which is a good thing.”

The Borders Competitions-sponsored Jim Clark Rally is one of two crossover events for the British and Scottish championships, the other being August’s Grampian Forest Rally in Aberdeenshire, round three of five for the former following the cancellation of June’s Kielder Carlisle Stages in Northumberland and Cumbria, and round six of seven for the latter.

That takes place on Friday and Saturday, August 7 and 8, and two further Welsh rounds make up the remainder of the British competition, based respectively in Aberystwyth and Llandudno – the three-day Rali Ceredigion from Friday, September 4, and the single-day Cambrian Rally on Saturday, October 24.

The next round of this year’s Scottish championship is the Dunoon-based Argyll Rally on Friday and Saturday, June 19 and 20.

That’s followed by two rounds in Dumfries and Galloway – the Dalbeattie-based Scottish Rally on Saturday, July 18, and the Galloway Hills Rally at Castle Douglas on Saturday, September 12 – either side of Banchory-based round six.