In 2009 and 2010 Peart suffered the misfortune of having mechanical problems on his car before the rally had started so he was hoping for better luck on the 2011 event.
Fortunately he made it to the opening stage of the Kelso-based rally this year and he was on the pace immediately, taking fifth place on the first test which took place around the spectator-packed streets of Duns. Two further stages took place on the first day of the event, both of them very tricky and testing. Keen to get a finish Peart and co-driver Jamie Forrest treated the stages with caution and arrived at the overnight halt in eighth place.
“After our experience in 2009 and 2010 I was delighted just to make it to the start,” commented Peart. “We did a rally at Barkston Heath to test the car before the Jim Clark and we managed to finish first in our class and fourth overall so I was confident that the car would perform reliably. The Duns stage went well, it was great to see all the spectators lining the streets, the other two stages had lots of places where it was easy to have an accident so we drove on the side of caution to make sure we got to the overnight halt.”
Day two saw a further five stages and Peart had a troublefree run although changeable weather conditions made tyre choice very difficult. A consistent pace saw him move up to an excellent sixth place overall at the rally finish in Kelso.
“I’m very happy with the result, the top crews were setting scorching times so I’m pleased to end up in a decent position on the leaderboard. I enjoyed the event immensely and hopefully we will be back out on the stages again soon.”
