Sunday 26 October 2014

Rally - Armstrong wins

Jock Armstrong and Paula Swinscoe won the Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally today, the final round of the 2014 ARR Craib Scottish Rally Championship. Going into the final stage he was lying 9 seconds behind Dave Weston and Kirsty Riddick, and came out in the lead. David Bogie was second and Desi Henry third.

"That last stage, I was on the button," said Jock, "but I nearly didn't come out of the spectator special fifth stage. I was just a bit too quick into a downhill bend and wanted to hang the tail out for the spectators. I kept it well out - and nearly didn't get it back!"

Leading all the way till the final stage, Dave Weston fell victim to the tricky and technical Dalbeattie test which was slippery with rain and autumn leaves: "I just spun over a crest and slid the nose into a ditch," said Dave, "it needed spectators to heave it out but we dropped over 4 minutes."

David Bogie therefore grabbed second place and was happy with that: "That was a good day and just what we needed ahead of Rally Wales GB. We were learning new tyres and everything we did to the suspension worked out well, so a good day."

Desi Henry grabbed third having survived an electrical gremlin in SS4: "We just disconnected the Launch Control system, and it was fine after that", said Desi, "that was a really enjoyable day."

Dougal Brown scored his best SRC result with 4th place ahead of Mike Faulkner fighting back from his first stage turbo problem with Dale Robertson grabbing the Group N win on the last stage with 6th place overall. His earlier problem was down to a missing bolt in the rear suspension, so he was back on the case for the final stages. "I don't know where he got that from," said Fraser Wilson, losing out on the class win by 3 seconds, "we lost our centre diff in that last stage but I didn't think Dale was going to catch us!"

Weston finished 8th ahead of Peter Taylor and Andew Gallacher.

Full report in Wednesday's 'Motorsport News'.

Leaderboard after 6 (of 6) stages:
1, J Armstrong, 46m 43s
2, D Bogie, 47m 21s
3, D Henry, 48m 10s
4, D Brown, 49m 04s
5, M Faulkner, 49m 25s
6, D Robertson, 49m 30s
7, F Wilson, 49m  33s
8, D Weston, 49m 37s
9, P Taylor, 49m 39s
10, A Gallacher, 49m 47s

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