This Jim Clark Rally sees the coming together of the top Pirelli Tarmac Championship competitors and the British Championship crews, which should make for a fascinating, if rather different type of rally. The Tarmac regulars, Eugene Donnelly, Derek McGarrity, Eamonn Boland and so forth in their World Rally Cars should top the time sheets, while the top British series drivers, for example, Mark Higgins, Rory Galligan, Jonny Milner, Gwyndaf Evans and first round winner Ryan Champion are competing in GpN machinery and it will be nothing short of miraculous if they can mix it with the leading Tarmac specialists in their World Rally Cars. Having said that, the Tarmac contingent at the top end seems well down from the usual Irish turn out.

 A twist to the mix is that the top Tarmac GpN contenders, such as Seamus Leonard, Colm Murphy, Roy White and the likes have a choice of fuel, whereas the British series combatants are on control fuel, which could give the Tarmac GpN boys the edge. That is certainly not a foregone conclusion of course, but the stage times will soon tell the story. There are many other facets to the rally, such as the race for Super 1600 honours between World stars Roman Kresta in his Fiesta and Suzuki driver Guy Wilks, plus there are lots of classes to be fought out. Then there are the 'subsidiary' rallies running through the Saturday stages for the 'Stars', the Fiesta Sporting Trophy and the Prima Motorsport Asphalt Championship.

In the Tarmac Championship defending Champion Eugene Donnelly leads the points in his Corolla WRC, and he said in the run up to the start, "For me, finishing and scoring points now is all important, driving with the head." Eamonn Boland, whose Focus WRC is prepared here near Kelso by the Dom Buckley team would dearly love to get back on to the winners rostrum, which has eluded him, in Tarmac terms, since the 2003 Cork '20'. Certainly, if Eamonn is to pressurise Donnelly in the latter part of the season, he needs an outright win here.

An early bombshell piece of news is that Tim McNulty, who was 2^nd here last year behind Mark Higgins, and says he loves these fast smooth roads, is non starting the rally as he has been carted off to hospital for an appendix operation. We wish the popular Tim a swift return to fitness. Ironically, Tim was saying a couple of days ago that his Championship hopes for this year are more or less gone. Despite his fabulous win with his Subaru on the Killarney Lakes, Tim's Championship chances look to be definitely out the window now!

Derek McGarrity enjoys the Jim Clark as well, and no doubt he'll be right 'on it' from the word go, although Derek is switching to a slightly older Subaru, instead of his WRC S11, which has been sold. Derek also has a change of co-driver, Tralee man Diarmuid Falvey stepping in to the hot-seat.

Young Gareth Jones, who is turning into a real rally star, mixing it with the best, shouldn't be a mile away here either in his Impreza WRC, the car having been totally refettled since the accident in Donegal. Gareth has had a good test session and said he is very happy with the car, changes to the suspension and differential mapping having made a difference. His aim is to be competitive here but keep the car in one piece for the Manx and then Rally Germany.

Last year's  Jim Clark winner and current British Rally Champion Mark Higgins is the top GpN seed this time and commented last night, "I'm looking forward to the event, we've had a good recce and everything is going to plan so far. I would like some mixed weather, so that it won't be a power event. The stages aren't terribly technical in some places, compared to other rallies, and if it's wet that would give us the chance to be brave!" Mark went on to say that he hadn't had a chance to test his GpN Impreza, but he was hoping for a 'wee run' before the start! Mark finished 2^nd on the opening round of the British series, the Pirelli, behind Ryan Champion with Gwyndaf Evans 3^rd, so that is the order at the top of the BRC. There are lots of good drivers behind so it promises to be pretty hectic tonight and tomorrow.  Principal non-starters from the top of the entry list include Tim McNulty whom we have already mentioned, Ray Breen whose Focus was to be at No.8 and Garry Jennings whose Lancer had been seeded at No.20.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

**FOR LIVE SMS RESULTS: UK mobiles text RALLY ITC to 60066. Irish mobiles text RALLY ITC to 53030: . Cost 30c/25p