Scottish Borders: JRM preview

JRM aims for asphalt success

* Gwyndaf Evans gets set to compete in Jim Clark Rally driving JRM Mitsubishi Evolution X

As announced earlier this month, JRM has entered Gwyndaf Evans in this weekend's Jim Clark Rally, round three of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship. The experienced Welshman will drive a JRM Group N (production class) Mitsubishi Evolution X and be co-driven by Chris Patterson.

Following victory in round two, the Kielder Forest-based Pirelli Rally, the JRM team is eager to see if it can repeat the result on an asphalt surface international status event and therefore sees the Jim Clark Rally as an ideal opportunity to achieve this. It also means that Evans has the chance to expand on his fourth position in the British Championship driver's standings, as will JRM in the team's category, in which it currently shares the lead.

"I am pleased to be getting the chance to compete again, as I realise that JRM's British programme is decided on an event-by-event basis", said Evans. "This is the first tarmac event with the team since last year's Northern Ireland Rally, when things went really well and we finished second. I therefore hope we can score another good result for the team this time."

Evans will use the right-hand-drive car that was campaigned in 2009 by Evolution Challenge prize-winner David Bogie, as his Pirelli winning LHD Evo is currently on its way to Sardinia to compete in the Rally d'Italia Sardegna with leading Swedish driver Per-Gunnar Andersson behind the wheel.

"Entering the Jim Clark Rally is yet another step in our development programme for the Evolution X," said John Barnes, JRM Rally Operations Manager. "After winning a round of the Finnish and British Championships so far this year, we are comfortable with the performance of our cars in the forests - be it on snow or gravel - and we now want to prove they are just as competitive on tarmac."

JRM Managing Director James Rumsey is also interested to see how his car performs this weekend: "We have carried out a great deal of development on our cars recently and by far the best way to test the effectiveness of this work is through competition. It is therefore important to see how they perform in a variety of conditions and the Jim Clark Rally provides a good opportunity for us to gather more data and, at the same time, showcase our cars on tarmac."

The Jim Clark International Rally takes place on closed public roads in Berwickshire on 28-29 May. Starting in Duns at 7.00pm on Friday, the evening features three stages run twice before crews head to the service area at Kelso Racecourse for the overnight halt.

The event re-starts from the racecourse at 8.30 on Saturday morning and sees four stages run twice before finishing in Kelso at 5.15 that afternoon, after covering a total of 134 competitive miles.

-source: jrm-group.com