Garry Pearson is a four-time National Rally Champion from Duns in the Scottish borders. His first Rally was in 2008 – the Colin McRae Forest Stages, and in 2021 he and his regular co-driver Niall Burns secured four Championship crowns in a single season, becoming the first crew in history to achieve the quadruple. Pearson is now competing in the British Rally Championship with M-Sport. 

1. Pay attention to your fitness. Never rush back from injury or illness – Speyside Stages, 2018 

I missed the first round of the Scottish Championship in 2018 recovering from a broken leg. It normally takes 6-8 weeks to recover, but mine was not healing right and I rushed it. I entered the second round, but I was not 100 per cent. On the fourth stage, I had the biggest accident I have ever had. The car rolled down a valley and my co-driver ended up in hospital. 

It made me realise that you really need to make sure you are fully match fit, even if you feel ok. Ultimately, I had not really walked on my leg for a few months, so I had lost fitness and even though you are just pushing some pedals, any weakness will really affect you. When you are taking risks at a 100mph, you need to be sharp. 

2. Never lose focus by over-committing or getting distracted – Jim Clark Rally, 2023 

The Jim Clark is like a local rally for me and in 2023 I committed to doing the British Championship on the Friday and Saturday and the Scottish on the Sunday. It all started with a recce on the Thursday then on the Friday I had a shakedown at 8:30am, sponsors’ runs from ten till one, then a team meeting and a car talk with the sponsors. 

I had no time to myself, no time to focus, not a lot of time to review the stages, and I ended up having an accident on second stage on the Friday night. That put me out of the event, so I spent the Saturday watching the Rally.  

Then, on the Sunday morning, I went out in another car and rolled it. I was clearly not as focused as I should have been. 

On a Rally weekend, the driver and co-driver are the most important people and although the sponsors and team are important, you need to be focused and give yourself the time to prepare. Since then, I have actually learned to do a lot more of that sponsor activity away from an event, as opposed to during it. 

You need to avoid getting caught up in all the hype. You get a lot of distractions on a ‘home’ Rally, so you just need to make sure you do not over-commit yourself. I have actually done a bit of sports psychology work on that since then, which has really helped me be calm and in a better state of mind going into an event and at the start of stages. 

Third place on the Jim Clark Rally was a big improvement over crashing out in 2023. 

3. Recognise your weaknesses and improve on them – Grampian Stages, 2016 

It was my first Championship season in 2016 and I ended up competing for the title. In the penultimate event, heading into the final stage, there was four seconds between me and another driver, then he went out and had a stormer. He took 15 seconds out of me, but I knew if I tried to go at that pace, I possibly would have made a mistake. 

That moment made me recognise I needed to go away and work on different aspects to my driving to try and make myself faster. In the final round, the Galloway Hills Rally, all I needed to do was finish to win the title, but I was on a road section heading to the last stage of the season when I had a mechanical problem that put me out, so I missed out on the title. 

I could have won the championship on good merit, but I recognised that there were still improvements to be made. I thought about going straight back into that Championship, but I kind of decided ‘I can do that and win it, but I want to go and dominate it’ so I went away and worked on two or three events a year, building my experience in the car. 

I worked on my weaknesses, trying some longer rounds on gravel, then we came back in 2021, just coming out of the pandemic, ready for a full go. We won all four, then stepped up to the British Championship and now we are giving it a good go. So, even though it doesn’t work out the first time, if you spot where you need to improve and work hard, it will come. 

4. Keep believing and fight to the finish – Rallynuts, 2021 Tom Bank 

At the start of 2021, Niall Burns and I decided to start the season participating in four different Championships, take things event by event and go to whichever ones were going well. It turned out that they all went well, so we just stuck to the plan and believed all the way through that we could win all four. 

Coming into the Severn Valley Rallynuts Stages, we had already won the Scottish Rally Championship and the British National Championship, but we had to beat Ian Bainbridge to win the Welsh Rally Championship title, and finish 4th or 5th to secure the BTRDA. On the final day, we had a problem in the morning and dropped quite a lot of time, so going into the last stage of the last event we were 11 seconds behind. 

All that day, we never stopped believing, and we managed to claw back 12 seconds so ended up winning the Welsh title by a second. It just showed what you can do if you keep believing in what you are doing, regardless of what is thrown at you on the day, and just keep trying your best. 

5. Good pace notes can help you visualise speed – Rali Ceredigion, 2023 

Dan Barrett started sitting with me at the Jim Clark Rally last year and we quickly identified that my pace notes needed some serious improvement! Dan has sat with World Rally Championship star Elfyn Evans before, so he is a phenomenal WRC-level co-driver, and he brought a lot of experience to me. 

You need a very specific amount of detail with pace notes – not too much, but not too little – and it is about finessing that level. We went away and worked on various stages in Scotland and just practiced and practiced and practiced, and now I can visualise a lot of what is coming before we get there. 

If it is a late apex, I know I can carry more speed in that type of corner, and that could give me a 0.5s or 0.3s gain on someone that has not got that level of detail. Just improving that picture in your head can really allow you to drive faster. And smarter. Because you are not taking more risks, you are actually just driving smarter. 

Rali Ceredigion was a couple of events after Dan had started to sit with me – the Jim Clark did not last long, then we did the Ulster Rally in Northern Ireland – and this one was in an area I had never been to. After couple of passes on the stage, I already had quite a good pace and it really clicked for me, I could see it working.