Johnson plunders Munro's territory

Published on Monday 5 July 2004 01:09

MARAUDERS from across the Irish Sea and the other side of Hadrian’s Wall conquered the treacherously slippery Borders tarmac roads to win the dual rounds of the Kelso-based Jim Clark Memorial Rally.

Twenty-four hours after multiple Irish Tarmac champion Andrew Nesbitt became the first driver to win the British Championship round of the JCMR for three-successive years since the legendary Roger Clark 30 years ago, Co Durham’s Barry Johnson ended Highlander Raymond Munro’s domination of the County Saab Scottish Championship.

Munro, the defending champion, came into the event gunning for a fifth-successive victory in the County Saab series. But the Inverness driver encountered problems in his Europcar-backed ex-Juha Kankkunen Subaru Impreza WRC on the second running through the six-miler at Fogo and dropped 56 seconds behind Johnson. The Englishman never looked back.

"The win has been a long time coming," the 2002 Scottish champ, whose last win came two years ago in the RSAC Scottish Rally in Dumfries, said after arriving back at rally HQ at Kelso race course.

"Things worked well for me, but we had a big scare the first time through Fogo when we careered through a hedge. Somehow we managed to get the car back on the road, but we dropped about 25 seconds.

"Then Raymond had his own problems and we were able to keep it on the road, despite the miserable conditions, and finally close the gap on Raymond in the title race."

Johnson, driving the Subaru Impreza Petter Solberg powered to the world title last year, eventually won by 62 seconds ahead of Munro with Glasgow’s Chris Wagner in the Nexus-backed Impreza continuing his good run in third.

Tillicoultry’s Gary Adam finished fourth with Lamsley’s Andy Fenwick completing the top five.

In the British Championship round Nesbitt, in his Subaru WRC, fended off the Toyota Corolla of his fellow Irishman Eugene Donnelly to win by 58.1 seconds. The Armagh driver finished a further minute ahead of Derek McGarrity’s Subaru.

With none of the top three registered for the Kwik-Fit Pirelli British Rally Championship, the 20 maximum points went to David Higgins who finished fourth in his Hyundai.

The Isle of Man driver’s course was eased over the final two stages when his main rival and winner of the RSAC Scottish Rally three weeks ago, Jonny Milner, retired when his Subaru caught fire.