ORGANISERS of a motorsport rally which was relocated following the deaths of three spectators in 2014 have confirmed that this year's event has been cancelled.

The Jim Clark rally will not go ahead because there were too few entries to make the competition financially viable.

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Club chairman, Dan Wright, said organisers had been "very reluctant" to cancel it.

He said: "We had insufficient entries by the closing deadline to make the event financially viable.

"This is an amateur club and we are all volunteers, we simply cannot afford to run the event at a loss.

"We do have limited funds in the bank but these are being held in reserve for next year's event when the Jim Clark Rally will return to a closed-road format."

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The event was marred by tragedy in 2014 when Iain Provan, 64, Elizabeth Allan, 63, and Len Stern, 71, all from Greater Glasgow, were killed when a car left the road at a stage of the Jim Clark rally near Coldstream, in the Borders.

Investigations are still ongoing into the crash.

The event, which dates back to 1970, had been held since 1997 and is named after Scottish Formula One champion, Jim Clark.

In 2015 it went ahead as the Jim Clark Reivers Rally on forest tracks in Kielder Forest in Northumberland, after starting in Kelso.

This year it had been expected to take place on private tracks on June 5 in Kelso and the Scottish Border.

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Mr Wright paid tribute to the efforts of his team who had tried to take the event forward despite three major re-routes

He said: "First we had to change the route to avoid a pair of nesting goshawks in Wauchope Forest.

"Then another pair was found close by another stretch of road forcing another major reroute.

"And a final rethink was under way to accommodate another rally event in three weeks' time in the same area."