There was quite a shakeup in the top ten after the final
three of today's 5 stages on the Brick & Steel Border Counties
Rally. Mike Faulkner went off on the final stage and Donnie MacDonald
was in a ditch on the fourth stage. Neither going any further.
There were no doubts about the winners though, David Bogie scoring a comfortable 47 second victory over Stephen Petch, with Euan Thorburn a disappointed third, just 4 seconds behind.
The word 'comfortable' sums up Bogie's progress rather succinctly
though: "I was pretty confident in the run-up to the rally, the year has
started well, but you just never know what the weather will do. It was a
help having the 2WD cars running first today but I did have a problem
on the final stage. The oil pressure light was flickering. That's
usually the sign of a filter problem, but it didn't slow me down."
Stephen Petch explained his afternoon improvement quite graphically: "I
pulled time back once I got the KMs on (see earlier snippet) - and, I
pulled my finger out!"
Euan Thorburn looked a wee bit dejected
at the finish in Jedburgh: "I usually start the year quite badly, so no
change there, but I lost out on the fourth stage. I overshot a junction
and it stalled, and wouldn't start."
Jock Armstrong finished
fourth: "I enjoyed it. I trashed a bumper and I had to pick a line
between the rocks in the last stage."
Quintin Milne got back in
the game with fifth: "I was off in stage 4. All I could see through the
windscreen was trees and branches. I don't know why, but I kept the
foot in and it came back out on to the road. That was a close one."
Andrew Gallacher posted an excellent result finishing top Group N car
and sixth overall: "I'm happy with that. Every one ahead of me is not
Group N."
We also sort of found out what happened to John
MacCrone. He actually contested all the stages, but there appears to
have been some sort of issue on the first two tests that he was saying
nowt about. Mind you, this was his first run out in the car and the team
gained valuable insight. He actually finished in 26th place - but he
won his class! So that's another wee trophy for the sideboard.
The funniest thing though was Matthew Robinson's explanation for going
off on SS4. He blamed Steve Bannister: "Steve came back to me at the
start of the stage and said 'There's a tricky bit in here, I'll leave
you a line to follow' which I thought was good of him," said Matthew,
"guess where I went off. Steve fed me a dodgy line, I was down a ditch,
and thought I was never coming out. So in future don't believe anything
you hear from 'Stevesdodgylines.com.'"
It has to be said that
Matthew repeated this tale while Steve looked on smiling from ear to
ear, and Matthew just laughed. Good job they're good mates.
Leaderboard after 5 (of 5) stages:
1, D Bogie, 43m 23s
2, S Petch, 44m 10s
3, E Thorburn, 44m 14s
4, J Armstrong, 44m 43s
5, Q Milne, 44m 52s
6, A Gallacher, 46m 08s
7, B Groundwater, 46m 26s
8, B Cumiskey, 46m 42s
9, P Taylor, 46m 50s
10, B McCombie, 46m 52s
