Nesbitt won out. His technical men were able to repair the clutch without recourse to a new gearbox, and the Subaru WRC left for the final four stages back in A1 mechanical health. Milner wasn't so fortunate. His crew did everything they could: whilst two engineers replaced the wrecked left-front suspension, two more attempted to repair the damaged front as the others changed wheels and topped up the levels. With just five minutes to go, the front had been taped up and the braking system was being bled. Back on with the wheels as the team manger announced ‘one minute to go'. Then, as the engine was fired up – panic. Some very abnormal noises showed that the turbo wasn't functioning properly, and a replacement was hastily brought out of the spares truck.
The result was one and a half minutes of lateness penalties that effectively finished Jonny's chances. But back to the beginning….
First run in 1970, just two years after the great man's death in a rather inconsequential F2 race at Hockenheim, the
Jim Clark Memorial Rally is unique in mainland Britain in that it's run on the closed narrow public Berwickshire lanes – the result of several years of parliamentary lobbying by event manager Colin Pagan. Clark, who had started his motor sport career in 1956 competing in several Berwick and District Motor Club road rallies on these same twisting roads, would be very happy with the event's current format – 160 stage miles of flat-out rallying by some of the best drivers in Britain and Ireland using the latest-spec rally machinery. From the Championship's point of view, the main interest lay in trying to predict which of the crews would be quickest on tarmac after the previous three gravel rounds, as well as seeing how the Irish contingent (the JCMR and the next two PBRC rounds also being part of the Toshiba Irish Tarmac Rally Championship) would fare against the PBRC regulars.
