Rally - Bogie in the Lead

Euan and David talk tactics!

With two stages gone in today’s Scottish Rally, David Bogie has already pulled out a convincing lead over Jock Armstrong, but Armstrong’s pace is still surprising, first time out since he cowped it on the Speyside last year. Mike Faulkner is third and pedalling the old Lancer as hard as he can: “There’s nothing left, that’s as fast as she’ll go,” said Mike.

Barry Groundwater is fourth, but has a bit of fuel surge at the top end of the revs: “She’s having to sook hard when the level drops below 25 litres,” said Barry, “we’ll need to run a full tank this afternoon just to make sure it’s OK.”

Already Euan Thorburn is having a bad day in the Focus: “It cut out and stalled in the first stage,” said Euan, “then the Launch Control failed at the start of the second stage and it cut out mid-stage again and stalled.” The boys thought they had fixed the problem yesterday at the shakedown but it seems something else has gone wrong with the electrics.

As for Bogie: “I was surprised at my first stage time (20 secs quicker than anyone else), I didn’t think it was that good. I like the stage but I wasn’t expecting to be that quick.”

Jock Armstrong is please with second place overall at this stage, driving the rebuilt car that he crashed on the Speyside last year: “I was down at Phil Price’s place in Wales during the week, just having a wee try,” he said, as he stood in front of the scuff marks ahead of the rear wheel arch on the driver’s side! “Those stages were slippery this morning, but there was grip to be had in places.” he added.

And despite what the weather forecasts predicted there were showers in the south west this morning, some really heavy ones and crews were struggling with cars that were steaming up and wipers which couldn’t cope with the volume of water falling from the sky – flaming June indeed!

Top Ten:

1 David Bogie , Lancer, 13m 18.6s

2 Jock Armstrong, Impreza, 13m  40.3s

3 Mike Faulkner, Lancer, 13m 52.9s

4 Barry Groundwater, Lancer, 13m 53.5s

5 Donnie MacDonald, Lancer, 13m 58.6s

6 Rory Young, Lancer, 14m 11.3s

7 Bruce McCombie, Impreza, 14m 12.8s

8 Steven Lockhart, Lancer, 14m 22.5s

9 Euan Thorburn, Focus WRC, 14m 22.5s

10 John McClory, Impreza, 14m 28.2s

Love's 'young' dream, Willie and Margo Stuart at the Scottish - and he's supposed to be servicing for Keith Robathan