Bogie
wins ... Having tied over the first five stages, David Bogie took 3
seconds out of Euan Thorburn on Stage six but it all went wrong for the
Focus driver in Stage 7: "The car felt funny at the rear on the road
section," said Thorburn, "I got out and checked the rear tyres but the
pressures were fine so we went into the stage. By the end of the stage,
we had a flat rear tyre. We dropped 14 seconds to David, so that was it."
The winner of today's McDonald &Munro Speyside Stages was delighted
to have won though: "That was a long hard day, the pace was so close. I
was having to drive really hard," said the Fiesta pilot, "that was a
quick pace today. We were both cutting corners it was so close. It
happened to Euan but it could just as easily have happened to me. We
both took risks. That's rallying."
Jock Armstrong finished
third in his Subaru ahead of the Lancer of Mike Faulkner: "I gave it a
good go on SS6 and 7," said Faulkner," and only took back 4 secs on Jock
so there was no way I was going to catch him on the final stage."
Bruce McCombie scored an excellent result with fifth in his Lancer and
Barry Groundwater snatched sixth from Donnie MacDonald who picked up two
punctures during the day. Dougal Browjn was 8th in his Lancer ahead of
Andy Horne third time out in the Focus. John Rintoul rounded off the top
ten and Dale Robertson scored the Group N win while Calum MacKenzie was
top 2WD.
And as for that fascinating 1600cc battle. Chuck
Blair was a relieved winner, his victory aided by Iain Haining's newly
built Nova shedding a wheel! And the rain fell. Dry all day and dreich
for the finish in Elgin, but excellent craic.
Leaderboard, after 8 (of 8) stages:
1, Bogie, 41m 21s
2, Thorburn, 41m 34s
3, Armstrong, 43m 06s
4, Faulkner, 43m 13s
5, McCombie, 44m 18s
6, Groundwater, 44m 42s
7, MacDonald, 44m 50s
8, Brown, 44m 53s
9, Horne, 45m 14s
10, Rintoul, 45m 37s
