Rally - Top Scots

What a rally, what a day, what a result. Three Scottish crews in the first three places at the end of the National Rally Wales GB.

Mike Faulkner and Peter Foy led home the 1-2-3: "It's been a funny day. It's been harder to drive in the middle of the road than drive flat out. Once we got that 30 seconds lead on Friday night it's been a matter of trying to keep it and not do anything stupid. There was no obvious line, there were even ruts in the grass from the World cars!"

That's only the second time that Mike has contested this event: "The last time was 1999 I think when I won a prize drive with Peugeot  in the Peugeot Cup. That's a long time ago - not something I car to think about now."

Andrew Gallacher and Jane Nicol finished a slightly surprised second: "That last stage was a mess. I nearly got sucked in at one muddy corner." He also admitted to being nearly off in the previous stage: "I had a bit of a push and went through a ditch, up a banking and back out again." As for the clean-shaven look - he was getting ready for the podium finish. Ha, Ha.

It was Andrew's first time at Rally Wales: "The rally was quite rough in places but I enjoyed it."

In third place were Barry Groundwater and Neil Shanks: "I really enjoyed it. The rally's better since they moved it north," said Barry, "the last twice I did it with Neil we had two non-finishes, so third time lucky. He's my lucky charm now - and also my unlucky charm!"

John Morrison and Peter Carstairs let the side down a bit, only managing to finish 8th: "If I had a wee 'clicky' gearbox (he means sequential) I might have done a bit better," joked John, "but just getting to the finish is a result, a top ten finish, a bonus. I was trying too hard yesterday. The conditions were muddy and bogging the car down and I was just over driving it. No sideways today, I was trying to catch the WRC Subaru ahead of me." He just missed out by 5 seconds!

Geoff Goudie and Chris Robertson finished 27th, Jim McRae and Pauline Gullick after their troubles 31st, and Graeme Swann managed to finish the rally in one piece guided by Stuart Loudon in 45th place - and they weren't last.