Bogie eyes Jim Clark victoryposted in SRC31 | 05 | 2012

THE NORMALLY SLEEPY Borders' roads between Kelso and Duns will reverberate to the cacophony of rally cars this weekend as the Jim Clark Rally roars into action.

The only event on the British mainland to be held totally on closed-off public tarmac roads, the rally has attracted a bumper entry of more than 200 crews.

The Jim Clark, which runs over the next three days, a counter in both the British and Scottish Rally Championships, is the biggest single rally in the UK.

It's also the first Tarmac rally all of the season after the opening three events, which have all been on gravel and which produced three different winners.

The event gets underway outsideBerwickshire High School in Duns tomorrow evening, with top seed, Ireland's Mark Donnelly, first off the start ramp in his Renault Clio.

Former British champ and fellow Irishman Keith Cronin starts at number two in his Citroen DS3, followed by hot Finnish driver Jarkko Nikara's Citroen.

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Welshman Elfyn Evans, who currently leads the British Championship by three points ahead of England's Tom Cave, starts fourth: Evans in a Ford Fiesta, and Cave in another Citroen DS3.

The crews will complete two runs of the 1.2-mile spectator special stage in Duns town centre before an overnight halt.

Saturday sees the crews face two loops of four blisteringly quick stages, broken by a service stop at Kelso.

The international field then faces another fast and slippery five stages on Sunday, the same day which accommodates the Scottish Championship contenders.

For the second year running, triple Scottish champ David Bogie will contest Sunday's Scottish Championship leg in his family's iconic MG Metro 6R4.

The 25-year-old car certainly proved its worth on the tarmac event in 2011, with the Dumfries-based driver setting a blistering pace to finish more than a minute ahead of the rest of the field.

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This season, Bogie has notched up three straight wins in the Scottish Rally Championship in his more familiar Mitsubishi Evo IX.

Co-driven by Hawick's Kevin Rae, he has been quickest through 12 of the 15 stages completed so far, sharing the fastest time on another, and will aim to continue the unbeaten run with a fourth successive victory on the Duns-based event.

"I love rallying in the Borders," Bogie said, "though with the weather threatening to deteriorate as we go through the weekend, it's going to be tough.

"But I know the stages well and we've won here before, both in the International and the Scottish, so we know how to plot our way round.

"We'll be taking nothing for granted though. We know there are a few guys out there desperate to take our scalps, but we'll be doing everything we can to win again."

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Jim McGill