Rally - Bogie's Border

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