Rally - Bogie again

Two events, two wins for David Bogie. The reigning Scottish and British Champion made it look all too easy cruising to a 1m 50 second victory over five dry, sun-kissed stages. And that was the story of this year’s Brick & Steel Border Counties, good stages, good conditions and good rallying.

“It all went to plan,” said David, “and that was to go as fast as we could without doing anything silly. The day couldn’t have gone better.”

In second place was a rather relieved looking Mike Faulkner after a hectic couple of weeks: “If ever there was a team result, this was it,” he said. “The last stage was my best today, going into the last stage there was 1 second between me and Jonny.”

Even so, Jonny Greer was pleased: “This was a good run out ahead of next weekend’s Bulldog Rally,” he said, “I’m getting the Citroen tomorrow and hopefully it will be ready for next weekend. I was hoping to push on that last stage but Mike was just a bit quicker.”

Barry Groundwater had a good run into 4^th with Rory Young fifth and Euan Thorburn rounded off the top six: “I got a puncture in that last test,” said Euan, “so it was a good rally, but not a good day for me.”

Quinton Milne was pleased enough with 7^th: “I got the manifold fixed for those last two but I cracked a brake disc on the last stage.”

John McClory had another excellent run, this time into 8^th place despite crinkling the front air dam and bumper this morning. “I need to grow larger testes to compete at the level of the top boys,” he explained graphically, and admitted to the surgical removal of the passenger door mirror on the last stage,“David called a ‘Keep In’ so it kept it in, maybe a bit too far, cos he shouted ‘not in to the trees!’”

Steve Bannister was top 2WD runner in 9^th place after a fierce battle with Michael Horne, Matthew Robinson, Keith Robathan and Calum Buchanan.

John Morrison finished 10^th after a drama-free day and Steve Petch didn’t. The Hyundai was spotted at the end of SS2 with the bonnet up, an electrical problem. Chris Collie had a bad day when a brake line broke on two separate occasions and he did SS3 with the pipe hammered shut and three wheel braking. He then caught a car on the final stage and stones smashed the windscreen. Calum MacLeod had another bad day with the MG, this time the fuel pump failed.

1 David Bogie, 42m 17s

2 Mike Faulkner, 44m 07s

3 Jonathan Greer, 44m 18s

4 Barry Groundwater, 44m 36s

5 Rory Young, 44m 38s

6 Euan Thorburn, 44m 52s

7 Quintin Milne, 44m 56s

8 John McClory, 45m 00s

9 Steve Bannister, 45m 46s

10 John Morrison, 46m 07s