BTRDA / RD3 / BORDER COUNTIES RALLY

WORDS BY ANDREW SCOTT | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW SCOTT

Saturday, the eleventh of May saw sixty-nine competitors head to Jedburgh in southern Scotland for the third round of the Protyre BTRDA Rally Series, the Border Counties Rally. Forming the first of two consecutive northern-based rounds for the BTRDA gravel series, followed by the Kielder Forest Rally in the middle of June.

Co-organised by the Hawick and Border Car Club and the Berwick and District Motor Club, the event would take a very similar structure to that seen in recent years. Running a total of six stages, the first four ran on the fast and dusty forest roads in Blackburn Rig and Riccarton before a regroup in Jedburgh and a final loop to the North in Craik and Cardrona.

For once in 2024 the weather was set fair for the weekend and a clear, cloudless night in one of the United Kingdom’s darkest sky areas treated us to an epic show of Northern lights on the evening before the rally. Atmospheric conditions aligning with space weather activity to give us visible reds, greens, yellows, and whites shooting across the sky. The most visible activity since 2003 and for the author, the most impressive sight in years of chasing the lights in northern Scotland. After a long night under the stars, it was to be a long, hot day in the Forests!

PHOTO: HERMITAGE CASTLE AND WHITROPE STATION | BY ANDREW SCOTT

GOLDSTAR

In the Gold Star, Matthew Hirst was to face major drama even before he had even turned a wheel in competition. After a quick catch-up in the Newtown St Boswells based Service Park, Xlerate.net found a half-built Fiesta and a reflective Hirst sitting in the service van awaiting delivery of a replacement (hired) Fiesta R5 for the weekend. The plan was to make the new car feel as “familiar” as possible – once it arrived.

PHOTO: MATTHEW HIRST & DECLAN DEAR | BEN JEMISON & DAVE JACKSON | BY ANDREW SCOTT

Coming into the Border Counties after a mighty impressive and highly dominant thirty-nine-second win over Elliot Payne in difficult foggy conditions on the Mid-Wales’ Rallynuts stages, it seemed that Hirst’s run of reliability issues was over, but not so. The miss-fire he reported on the afternoon loop was a more serious engine problem and Hirst described himself as “fortunate” to have finished at all.

Although not registered for the Gold Star award, there was an entry for former BRC National Champion Alan Carmichael, like Hirst, another who had endured a rather luckless time recently with seemingly constant problems with his new Hyundai I20 Rally2 car.

This potentially left a rather thin-looking Gold Star field at the mercy of reigning double champion Elliot Payne in his Amigos Tequila-sponsored Fiesta Rally2. The only other top-running BTRDA Gold star runners entered were Russ Thompson & Steven Link in their B13 Mitsubishi Evo 9, with former Champion Stephen Petch & Michael Wilkinson in their Skoda Fabia Rally2 also not registered for BTRDA points.

LEG 1 / MORNING LOOP (SS1 – SS4)

SS1 was the 7.2 miles of Blackburn Rig, which ran in the same configuration as prior years. In the Gold Star, as expected Payne got off to a storming start setting the fastest time which was six seconds faster than the Thompson & Link combination in their Mitsubishi Evo 9.  The third fastest was Scott Beattie, a further 3 seconds behind. Meanwhile Hirst/ Dear were only able to set a time of seven minutes five seconds, a full twenty-five seconds slower than Payne and Walsh as they not only adjusted to their “arrive and drive” hire car but were suffering power steering issues with it already in both SS1 and SS3.

PHOTO: ELLIOT PAYNE & PATRICK WALSH | BY ANDREW SCOTT

By SS2 however, Hirst was back on the money setting a time of six minutes fifty-nine through the fast and flowing roads of Riccarton. Starting to the southwest of the complex, it ran longer and in the opposite direction (compared to 2023) ending towards the Hells Hole area of the forest. Again, fastest through was Elliot Payne and Patrick Walsh in their Amigos Tequilla sponsored Fiesta Rally 2, with the rapid time by Hirst clocking in at only 2 seconds slower over the eight miles of Riccarton. Third fastest through were Liam Clark and Emily Easton-Page, with their first top 3 time of what was to be an impressive day out in the Fiesta, followed by the consistent pair of Thompson and Sigurðarson. The top three times were split by only four seconds and the top five by fifteen; Scott Beattie was, however, to retire on SS2 with power steering trouble.

PHOTO: MATTHEW HIRST & DECLAN DEAR | LIAM CLARK & EMILY EASTON-PAGE | DANIEL SIGURÐARSON & ÁSTA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR |BY ANDREW SCOTT

Next on the agenda was a regroup in Jedburgh, and as the crews headed back into town, Payne led the rally by fourteen seconds from Liam Clark, with Russ Thompson a further four seconds behind, and by dent of 2 consistent top 5 times, Sigurðarson in fourth. Matthew Hirst’s acclimatization stage left him languishing in fifth, twenty-seven seconds off the lead and nine seconds off a podium place. Trevor Gamble and Ewan Lees rounded off the top six, a further fifteen seconds behind and a total of forty-two off Payne & Walsh’s lead. One notable absentee from the leaderboard was Vivian Hamill and Lorcan Moore, just like on Rallynuts, their rally ending early on SS1, this time with suspension trouble.

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#1 ELLIOT PAYNE / PATRICK WALSH	13:37:00
2	#11 LIAM CLARK / EMILY EASTON-PAGE	13:51:00
3	#6 RUSS THOMPSON / STEPHEN LINK	13:55:00
4	#10 DANIEL SIGURÐARSON / ÁSTA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR	14:02:00
5	#2 MATTHEW HIRST / DECLAN DEAR	14:04:00

Post re-group, the crews headed back out on what would be a repeat of SS1 and SS2. This time though there was to be no repeat for Hirst in Blackburn Rig as he again set second fastest time, this time second equal with Thompson in the Evo 9, both rising up the leader board with Thompson displacing Clark for Second and Hirst rising to fourth within striking distance of the top 3. Both were, however, behind the charging Payne, who set a time thirteen seconds faster than his first run through Blackburn Rig. Nine seconds faster than the pair in second place, this despite Hirst now being more familiar with his “rent-a-car” Fiesta! Behind the three regular BTRDA top guns, Clark & Easton-Page and Sigurðarson & Sigurðardóttir rounded out a familiar top five, fourteen and sixteen seconds behind our stage winner and rally leader.

Stage 4 was back to Riccarton where Trevor Gamble treated the crowd at the spectator point to a spectacular roll in his Ford Parts-sponsored Fiesta Rally2! Having seen some photos, he will certainly be needing some of them in the near future!

PHOTO: ELLIOT PAYNE & PATRICK WALSH | TREVOR GAMBLE & EWAN LEES | RUSS THOMPSON & STEPHEN LINK | BY ANDREW SCOTT

Back to the action at the front and unsurprisingly Elliot Payne took his fourth fastest time, trumping his incremental improvement of thirteen seconds on Blackburn Rig by going fourteen seconds faster through Riccarton. Hirst again took second, this time only four seconds slower than Payne. Third was an impressive Liam Clark who would jump from third to second overall in what was turning out to be a closely fought battle with the Thompson & Link pair, who only set the fourth fastest time, eleven seconds slower than the Clark and Easton-Page, who were really coming into their own after a few early season runs in the new car.

“Going into the last 3 stages we knew Matthew would be pushing hard and Russ Thompson too, Stage 4 we struggled for rhythm, and 5 the same allowing, Hirst to take 2nd and Russ to take time out of us”

Liam Clark

The southern portion of the event was done and as the spectators all headed North for the Craik and Cardrona tests the cars headed back to their second service of the day in St Boswells, with Payne increasing his overall lead to thirty-five seconds from the aforementioned Clark. Hirst, now up to third a further five seconds behind and gaining rapidly with five seconds separating him and Thompson in fourth, and the ever-consistent Daniel Sigurðarson and Patrick Naylor rounding out the top six.

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#1 ELLIOT PAYNE / PATRICK WALSH	26:47:00
2	#11 LIAM CLARK / EMILY EASTON-PAGE	27:22:00
3	#2 MATTHEW HIRST / DECLAN DEAR	27:27:00
4	#6 RUSS THOMPSON / STEPHEN LINK	27:32:00
5	#10 DANIEL SIGURÐARSON / ÁSTA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR	27:47:00

LEG 2 / AFTERNOON LOOP (SS5 – SS6)

The penultimate stage of the day saw the crews head towards Peebles and the central belt for the most northerly test of the event, with five miles through Cardrona Forest. This time Hirst managed to get the better of Payne as he appeared to move more towards “get it home” mode, setting the third fastest time, all be it only two seconds behind stage winners Hirst & Dear; splitting the pair was Thompson & Link.

Therefore going into the final 7.44 miles of Craik, Payne & Walsh were a comfortable thirty-eight seconds ahead of both Hirst and Clark, Matt taking second place after SS5 by dint of a tenacious drive after his slow SS1 time.

“Going into the last stage, I said to Emily we would have to have a big push and hope we could keep Thompson behind us”

Liam Clark

There were to be no surprises on the Craik test,as Hirst consolidated second place by setting his second top time of the afternoon; taking nine seconds out of Payne’s lead he eased off and in order to get the car to the finish.

“The boss, (my father!) said to bring it home so we made sure we just got to the finish to take maximum points”

Elliot Payne

Daniel Sigurðarson and Liam Clark set equal third fastest on the stage, ten seconds behind Hirst & Dear, with the top five rounded out by Russ Thompson.

In the final reckoning Elliot Payne and Patrick Walsh took the win in their Amigos Tequilla sponsored Ford Fiesta Rally2, Twenty-nine seconds clear of Matthew Hirst and Declan Dear in their Delta Salvage “rent-a-car” Fiesta R5, with an impressive Liam Clark rounding out the podium places forty-one seconds behind the rally winners.

Clark’s “big push” ensured a mighty impressive third-place finish in only his second year of rallying.

“Thrilled to bits with the result to be honest! We set out with a view to finish top 10 and things just seemed to click from the get go, (we) had a good test on the Thursday before the event and learned a few things there, but a smooth trouble-free run helped”

Liam Clark

As the Protyre BTRDA Gravel Rally Series makes the short hop across the border and into the Kielder Forest complex, Elliot Payne heads a closely fought Gold Star Award. With six points splitting the top 3, his two wins and a second place in the opening three rounds gave him a three-point lead over Russ Thompson in second with Matthew Hirst in third, a further three points behind.

FINAL RESULTS

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#1 ELLIOT PAYNE / PATRICK WALSH	38:23:00
2	#2 MATTHEW HIRST / DECLAN DEAR	38:52:00
3	#11 LIAM CLARK / EMILY EASTON-PAGE	39:04:00
4	#6 RUSS THOMPSON / STEPHEN LINK	39:13:00
5	#10 DANIEL SIGURÐARSON / ÁSTA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR	39:33:00

SILVERSTAR

In Silver Star, after an impressive performance, if not result on the Rallynuts, Max Utting (Fiesta ST) and Andrew Davidson (Talbot Sunbeam) were both back out on the Border Counties. For round one winner Davison, the last round, like Hirst, had been a similar test of reliability as he suffered a “kick in the rally nuts” on the Severn Valley Stages having retired from a comfortable lead on the final stage of the event. Davidson and Co-Driver Tom Murphy would hand the win to Rob Dennis and Andrew Boswell who put in a very consistent and impressive performance in their own right.  

After his strong start to the BTRDA Silver Star season, Davison would face competition from Round 1 runner-up Ben Jemison in his Vauxhall Chevette, an improving Lewis Hooper in his new Ford Fiesta and Rallynuts star Max Utting; as well as Championship regulars such as Nick Dobson and Micheal Jenkins, this week with Indian Rally Champion Co-Driver Eldo Chacko in the second seat.

LEG 1 / MORNING LOOP (SS1 – SS4)

On SS1 Davison & Tom Murphy opened up the proceedings with a seven-minute twenty-six, a full twenty-five seconds quicker than Lewis Hooper in second and a full minute back to Nick Dobson in the Escort MKII. Meanwhile, Jenkins and Chacko struggled and were nearly two minutes slower; the British forest rallying proving to be a baptism of fire compared to the Indian’s usual surroundings.

PHOTO: ANDY DAVISON & TOM MURPHY | MICHAEL JENKINS & ELDO CHACKO | BEN JEMISON & DAVE JACKSON | BY ANDREW SCOTT

As it transpired, more of the same was to come; early retirements from Max Utting and Ben Jemison’s overheating engine left Davison & Murphy free reign, setting the fastest time on all six stages.

“We got a puncture on stage 1, then the head gasket failed on stage 2 unfortunately. We’ve rebuilt the engine ready for Kielder and hopefully made some improvements whilst we were in there.”

Ben Jemison

Onto SS2 and the first run through Riccarton. Davison’s main challenger, the Hooper & Edwards combination were only able to set the sixth fastest time, over fifty-two seconds behind Silver Star leader Davison. Meaning that going back to Jedburgh Davison & Murphy led Dobson & Pugh by some 46 seconds. The Ford Escort pair set an equal second-fastest time with third-place runners Will and Karen Graham in their Mk1 Escort and Hooper was down in sixth place overall.

“We caught the car in front of us and were stuck in his dust, not being able to see past the bonnet for over half of the stage”

Lewis Hooper

PHOTO: LEWIS HOOPER & RHYS EDWARDS | BY ANDREW SCOTT

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#42 ANDY DAVISON / TOM MURPHY	15:18:00
2	#45 NICK DOBSON / STEVE PUGH	16:04:00
3	#46 WILL GRAHAM / KAREN GRAHAM	16:12:00
4	#44 BAZ JORDAN / ARWEL JENKINS	16:24:00
5	#62 STEVE WARD / KEVIN BARDON	16:33:00

Back into Blackburn Rig for SS3 and Hooper was back on form, setting the second fastest time which was seven seconds behind Dobson & Pugh, with Will Graham setting the third fastest time, bringing him within seven seconds of Dobson in second place – in a battle that would endure for the duration of the event.

PHOTO: ANDY DAVISON & TOM MURPHY | NICK DOBSON & STEVE PUGH | WILL GRAHAM & KAREN GRAHAM | BY ANDREW SCOTT

SS4 was the last stage before service and the roles were reversed behind Davison, as Graham set the second fastest time here, five seconds ahead of Hooper, leapfrogging Dobson into second overall. Dobson finished fifth on stage, ten seconds slower than Graham. andHooper was also up to fourth as the cars headed back to service at Newtown St Boswalls.

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#42 ANDY DAVISON / TOM MURPHY	30:18:00
2	#46 WILL GRAHAM / KAREN GRAHAM	31:50:00
3	#45 NICK DOBSON / STEVE PUGH	31:53:00
4	55 LEWIS HOOPER / RHYS EDWARDS	32:05:00
5	#44 BAZ JORDAN / ARWEL JENKINS	32:26:00

LEG 2 / AFTERNOON LOOP (SS5 – SS6)

The afternoon loop of two stages to the north of Hawick started with SS5 Cardrona. Dobson bit back, taking seven of those ten seconds straight back. Hooper was again second leaving him fourth overall in Silver Star, only five seconds behind Will Graham going into the last stage of the event. A total of nine seconds separated Dobson in second and Hooper in fourth, which gave us the potential for a grandstand finish on the final test, Craik.

Unsurprisingly, Davison and Murphy were to set their sixth fastest time of the day on Craik. Second fastest were Will & Karen Graham, with Dobson & Pugh and Hooper & Edwards setting the equal third fastest time. The 2-second time differential between Graham, Dobson and Hooper was not material enough to alter the overall positions. Will Graham’s second place in Silver Star also ensured that he took the Historic Cup win, by thirty-eight seconds over Baz Jordan and Steve Ward would rounded out that podium in third.

PHOTO: NICK DOBSON & STEVE PUGH | WILL GRAHAM & KAREN GRAHAM | LEWIS HOOPER & RHYS EDWARDS | BY ANDREW SCOTT

Davison’s dominance was never challenged, finishing over two minutes ahead of his nearest competitor, but despite this, there was a tight fight for the other podium places, with Dobson holding off Graham for second by the slim margin of just 2 seconds after forty-three and a half miles of rallying. Hooper was fourth, around seven seconds further back, ruing his bad luck on SS2.

“Yeah, I really I think that we worked out that if SS2 hadn’t of happened, we would have been 2nd Silver Star and 1st front wheel drive but that’s how it goes sometimes in rallying”

Lewis Hooper

Despite Davison’s second win in three rounds, he sits second in the BTRDA Silver Star championship table, eleven points around the consistently scoring Steve Ward, after his sixth-place finish on the Borders. Equal second is Michael Jenkins, despite his mixed result at the Border Counties, with Eldo Chacko being subjected to a massive learning curve on his first UK event. Closely matched pair Dobson and Graham both sitting in fourth and 7 points behind Jenkins.

PHOTO: ANDY DAVISON & TOM MURPHY | BY ANDREW SCOTT

FINAL RESULTS

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#42 ANDY DAVISON / TOM MURPHY	43:07:00
2	#45 NICK DOBSON / STEVE PUGH	45:09:00
3	#46 WILL GRAHAM / KAREN GRAHAM	45:11:00
4	55 LEWIS HOOPER / RHYS EDWARDS	45:18:00
5	#44 BAZ JORDAN / ARWEL JENKINS	45:49:00

BRONZESTAR

The Border Counties Bronze Star field had also featured this re-occurring story of bad reliability as seen on Rallynuts, Championship favorites Nigel and Karen Jenkins had suffered both fuel pump and ignition coil trouble on the afternoon loop, causing them to take stage maximum on the final stage and drop out of a certain second position. With Round 1 and 2 winners Calum (RD1) and Steve Black (RD2) (Suzuki Swift) absent for the Border Counties, their main competition would come from the current championship leaders, Will Banks & Matthew Baddeley and Chris & James Greenall in their a similar Vauxhall Novas.

LEG 1 / MORNING LOOP (SS1-SS?)

Karen and Nigel Jenkins followed very much in the Payne and Davison mold in the Bronze Star, setting the fastest time on each of the six stages and with third-placed Ashley Frances-Adams also absent from the event, Jedburgh was to provide both Chris Greenall and Will Banks the opportunity to steal a march in the Championship, behind the Jenkins pair of course.

The opening SS1 Blackburn Rig test saw Nigel Jenkins set a time seven seconds faster than Will Banks and Paddy Horman in third, eighteen seconds behind our stage winners.

Onto SS2 and Bank’s good work was to be undone by a time of nine minutes twenty-eight through Riccarton, a full one minute and twenty behind the Jenkins pair, but alas Banks and Co-Driver Baddeley were to retire their Vauxhall Nova soon after.

“I blew the engine up on SS2. Ended up being the whole top end needing replacing and rebuilding. Gutted as was going really well”

Will Banks

PHOTO: NIGEL JENKINS & KAREN JENKINS | CHRIS GREENALL & JAMES GREENALL | WILL BANKS & MATTHEW BADDELEY | BY ANDREW SCOTT

This left the way clear for the Horman’s to cement second place, all be it forty-seven seconds behind Jenkins after just two stages, Chris Bush also benefiting from Bank’s misfortune would move up to third overall, twelve seconds behind Horman and five seconds ahead of Greenall as the crews headed back to Jedburgh.

PHOTO: PADDY HOMAN & TOM HOMAN | BY ANDREW SCOTT

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#52 NIGEL JENKINS / KAREN JENKINS	16:01:00
2	#69 PADDY HOMAN / TOM HOMAN	16:48:00
3	#64 CHRIS BUSH / ROBERT BRYN JONES	17:00:00
4	#84 CHRIS GREENALL / JAMES GREENALL	17:05:00
5	67 WILL BANKS / MATTHEW BADDELEY	17:28:00

The second loop of stages through firstly Blackburn Rig and then Riccarton saw more of the same, Nigel and Karen Jenkins increased their overall lead over Paddy and Tom by a further twenty-nine seconds to take a lead of one minute sixteen seconds heading back to service.

PHOTO: CHRIS BUSH & ROBERT BRYN JONES | NIGEL JENKINS & KAREN JENKINS | CHRIS GREENALL & JAMES GREENALL | BY ANDREW SCOTT

Behind the Green Nova of Jenkins, the White Puma pair (Hormans) were second on both stages and went into service twenty-four seconds ahead of Bush, who had been trading times with Greenall on SS3 and SS4. Greenall first out the blocks beating Bush by two seconds on the second run through Blackburn Rig, cutting the gap to Bush (in third) to only three seconds going into Riccarton. However, Bush & Jones’ eight minutes twenty-nine in SS4 was ten seconds quicker than the Greenall pair, meaning they had a net gain of eight seconds over the middle tranch of stages, consolidating third place in the process and taking the gap up to thirteen seconds.

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#52 NIGEL JENKINS / KAREN JENKINS	31:53:00
2	#69 PADDY HOMAN / TOM HOMAN	33:09:00
3	#64 CHRIS BUSH / ROBERT BRYN JONES	33:33:00
4	#84 CHRIS GREENALL / JAMES GREENALL	33:46:00

LEG 2 / AFTERNOON LOOP (SS5-SS6)

The final runs through Cardrona and Craik yielded no surprises with the order remaining unchanged. Bush and Jones had increased their gap from thirteen seconds to twenty-eight by the finish.

The final results read as a convincing win for Nigel and Karen Jenkins by a full two minutes and three seconds from Horman(s) who finished second, eighteen seconds ahead of Bush who managed to slash the gap from twenty-five to eighteen seconds on that final stage.

PHOTO: NIGEL JENKINS & KAREN JENKINS | PADDY HOMAN & TOM HOMAN | CHRIS BUSH & ROBERT BRYN JONES | BY ANDREW SCOTT

In the championship, Nigel Jenkins now leads Chris Greenall by one point and despite his issues on this rally, Will Banks sits third on fifty-four points, two points ahead of Paddy Horman and Ashley Francis-Adams who both missed a round each. 

FINAL RESULTS

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#52 NIGEL JENKINS / KAREN JENKINS	45:10:00
2	#69 PADDY HOMAN / TOM HOMAN	47:13:00
3	#64 CHRIS BUSH / ROBERT BRYN JONES	47:31:00
4	#84 CHRIS GREENALL / JAMES GREENALL	47:59:00

STANDINGS / ROUND 3

GOLDSTAR DRIVERS

POS	LEADERBOARD	POINTS
1	ELLIOT PAYNE	88
2	RUSS THOMPSON	85
3	MATTHEW HIRST	82
4	DANIEL SIGURÐARSON	75
5	LIAM CLARK	74

SILVERSTAR DRIVERS

POS	LEADERBOARD	POINTS
1	STEPHEN WARD	72
2	ANDY DAVISON	61
3	MICHAEL JENKINS	61

BRONZESTAR DRIVERS

POS	LEADERBOARD	POINTS
1	NIGEL JENKINS	78
2	CHRIS GREENALL	77
3	WILL BANKS	54

HISTORIC CUP DRIVERS

POS	LEADERBOARD	POINTS
1	STEPHEN WARD	50
2	WILL GRAHAM	39
4	BEN JEMISON	21

NEXT TIME

Next time out we head the short distance of fifty miles due south, to Hexham in Northumberland for the Kielder Forest Rally on Saturday 15th June. Forty-two miles and six quality stages which are all based to the south of Kielder water, in and around the Falstone and Bower areas of the Kielder Forest complex on the former turf of the Pirelli International Rally. With Elliot Payne heading the Gold Star standings and Matthew Hirst hopefully with a repaired car, it promises to deliver another closely fought battle at the head of the Protyre BTRDA Rally Championship field.

PHOTO: NIGEL JENKINS & KAREN JENKINS | BY ANDREW SCOTT