Rally - Belated Border

There was no signal to be had in the middle of Kielder, even on the main road through the Park, but better late than never, here's a wee bit of news. No surprise that David Bogie and Euan Thorburn are leading but repeating his excellent form on the Snowman, Dougal Brown is in third place.

Most of the first stage was under 4 inches of west snow and some of it was cloaked in thick fog, but the second stage was clearer although some of the regarded bits were cutting up for the later runners.
Going out of first service Bogie had an 18 second lead: "It's all about keeping it tidy," said David, "I'm getting all my braking done before the corners and then just driving through, I don't usually smell my brakes at stage finishes but I was smelling them today, that shows that I've been keeping my foot hovering on the pedal."

Euan Thorburn was looking pensive: "I got a slow rear puncture near the end of the first one, but it's tricky. I'm trying to keep it in the black lines because if you put a wheel on the snow, you're gone."

Dougal Brown didn't realise he was third till he saw the time sheets: "We had a rear puncture at the end of the first one and a 'skiddy' moment in stage 2 on the snow. We just got a wheel on the snow on the way in to a bend and it drifted wide out of the next one."

Steve Petch was driving the Focus he drove on the Malcolm Wilson: "We were going to use the Lancer but we got the bits in time to fix the Focus. We were on K6s for the first two stages - but should have been on KMs - like everyone else!"

Jock Armstrong was looking a bit down in the dumps but was remaining positive: "I haven't got past the first stage here since 2009, so that's a positive." He's still in the old car so maybe the Granite for the new one.
Mike Faulkner rounded off the top six but suffered a similar problem to Quintin Milne and Donnie MacDonald: "There's a chicane near the start of the first stage. It's really quick into it, then it tightens. I whacked the door against a bale - on Peter's side!"

Quite a few folk joined the bashed door club here but Chris Collie and Graeme Schoneville both slid off and got stuck. As for John MacCrone, he was on the start list but didn't appear at the start of the first stage. We all thought he was hanging back, so this needs to be investigated further!

Leaderboard after 2 (of 5) stages:
1, D Bogie, 17m 56s
2, E Thorburn, 18m 14s
3, D Brown, 18m 25s
4, S Petch, 18m 27s
5, J Armstrong, 18m 29s
6, M Faulkner, 18m 40s
7, Q Milne, 18m 40s
8, P Taylor, 18m 58s
9, B Groundwater, 19m 05s
10, A Gallacher, 19m 09s