Rally - Bird leads Bogie

Paul Bird leads the Malcolm Wilson Rally after 4 of the day's 8 stages, but just 19 seconds behind are David  Bogie and Kevin Rae. Euan Thorburn and Paul Beaton are third a further 19 secs behind, but they're tied for third with Stephen Petch.

At first service David reflected on his morning: "It was very slippery this morning, especially in Wythop (SS2 and 3) but I was pleased with my time in Greystoke. I felt I hit all my braking points right and got on the power at the right time but I still dropped 6 secs to Paul." Bird changed tyres before that last stage whereas Bogie has used the same set all morning so far: "I'm not making excuses for that," said David, "I felt that I drove as fast as I could go in there."

Thorburn was in trouble - again: "I lost hydraulic pressure on the first stage, and lost the diffs and sequential gearshift. A bleed nipple broke off and it dropped all it's oil, so I had to revert to manual shift and using the clutch to change gear. I finished the stage in road mode and had to do the next two stages before we could fix it. That's fine but it upsets the rhythm. We fixed it for SS4 - and then I spun!"

Wayne Sissons is in the top ten  in ninth place with Neil Shanks alongside and Steve Bannister with 'our' Louise Sutherland is having a battle with Matthew Robinson in the MkIIs.

Andrew Gallacher and Jane Nicol are having a run out in the Lancer ahead of the Border Counties: "I wasn't completely happy with the new car on the Snowman, so this is a bit of test," said Andrew, "The last time I was here was the Grizedale Stages in the MkII - on sheet ice and snow!"

Jon Burn and Alan Stark are giving the Subaru a run out here too ahead of the Border: "The car's fine, it's just me," said Jon, "I'm just not at the party at all."

Lee Hastings and Mark Roberts are going well in the Subaru apart from: "We had a bit of a straight-on in SS2," said Lee, "it was at a place where we watched last year - and insulted everyone who went off at the same bit as we did today! Fortunately there were plenty of spectators on hand. We were lucky though, we stopped just short of a banking, and wouldn't have got out of that."

Ryan Weston is having his second run out in the Proton with Mark McCulloch on the maps but on the second stage they cowped it: "I was just getting round a Left Hander with a ditch on the inside and dropped a wheel into it," said Ryan, "It just caught me and tipped me over and the car landed back on its wheels. Fortunately there were loads of spectators there and they got me out quickly." The car doesn't look too bad - if you squint a wee bit.

Graeme Sherry and Pete Weall are supposed to be out in the new Renault Clio - but I haven't seen them, or maybe I just missed them. Fingers crossed.