Rally - Thorburn wins

Euan Thorburn has put his Scottish Championship title hopes back on track with victory in today's McCombie Builders Granite City Rally. Jock Armstrong finished a strong second ahead of Mike Faulkner and Quintin Milne.

"No dramas today," said Euan, "We've got some new bits on the car with more to come and we've had a bit of help from Paul Benn. It's been running well today, so well that we used the same set of 4 Pirelli tyres all day. We didn't change a thing."

Jock was delighted with the runner-up position: "Quintin thought he would go well today on home territory, but sometimes that can work against you. We took a bit of time out of him but that's only because he knows where the bad bits are, and backed off, and I'm too stupid to back off." Methinks Jock plays himself down too much, eh?

Mike Faulkner was pleased and relieved: "I thought it was going on the trailer at lunch time. The diff pump failed and was pumping oil out of the transfer box into the engine. The leak we had was oil being pushed out the breather. So we just disconnected the diff pump and carried on with rear wheel drive!"

Quintin Milne was happy with a fourth placed finish: "I've got new suspension on the car and it doesn't feel right. It's quite different to what I had but Jock said he will help me with set-up. Jock was on fire in that second stage but on the fourth stage I saw big Hamish walking into the stage and thought I'd put on a show - I was nearly off!"

Donnie MacDonald was delighted with fifth and Mark McCulloch was equally pleased with a top six finish although the Subaru was overheating by the finish and he pushed it over the finish line in Aberdeen.

Chris Collie lost out on a top ten finish with a puncture on the final stage allowing Andy Horne to claim a top ten finish first time out in the Focus: "It's a huge difference to the Metro. It's more forgiving than me."

Leaderboard after 4 (of 4) stages:
1, E Thorburn, 44m 02s
2, J Armstrong, 44m 39s
3, M Faulkner, 45m 44s
4, Q Milne, 46m 07s
5, D MacDonald. 46m 40s
6, M McCulloch, 47m 21s
7, B Groundwater, 47m 28s
8, B McCombie, 47m 40s
9, A Inglis, 47m 54ss
10, A Horne, 47m 57s