Rally - Bogie wins Snowman

He made it look easy, but conditions on this year's Thistle Hotel Arnold Clark were infinitely changeable and constantly treacherous. Every one who survived was a winner.

It wasn't just skill and talent that earned Bogie his first win of the season, there was luck in there too: "On that snowy fourth stage, there was one downhill section where I just touched the brakes - the car filled the road. With a drop on one side and tress on the other, I thought, this is going to hurt. This was not the most enjoyable event I've done but it was one of the hardest to win."

Mike Faulkner was both pleased and relieved with second place: "I put snow tyres on for the fifth test, and it was gravel, then I put gravel tyres on for the final test, and it snowed!"

Unluckiest driver must be Quinton Milne, as high as second after four stages, and looking good, the brakes failed in the fifth test. "We had to run through the sixth stage with no brakes at all. Given how bad things were I'm really pleased with 9th place and getting some championship points in the bag.

That gave young Peter Taylor third place and he was really chuffed: "Job done, I wanted to push at times but Martin and Dad (Keith Taylor) told me just to hold station and go for the points." When asked how slippy it was he said: "Imagine a tarmac surface with an inch of sh*t on it and an inch of frozen snow on top of that. It was the slippiest conditions I've ever encountered."

Rory Young was equally pleased with fourth: "John McClory beat me by one second on the Scottish last year, and I best him by one second today!"

Snowman Top Ten:

Bogie 50m 03s

Mike Faulkner 51m11s

Peter Taylor 52m 46s

Rory Young 52m 49s

John McClory 52m 50s

Barry Groundwater 53m 08s

Steven Ronaldson 53m 17s

Dougal Brown 53m 46s

Quintin Milne 53m 58s

Matthew Calderwood 54m 05s

Apologies for the delay with this final report - the laptop froze. Not the usual electronic glitches, it was just too cold. I had to wave it under the hand dryer in the Gents toilets in the Thistle Hotel to thaw it out!