Rally - Bogie leads

David Bogie and Dave Weston are continuing their nail biting duel at the head of the Granite City Rally and with 6 (out of 9) stages gone, there is still just ONE second between them.

Dave Weston said: “I’m just lucky to be here. I misjudged a corner in the fourth stage earlier on and nearly went into the trees. I was stopped by a banking but punctured a rear tyre. This thing (the Subaru) is a handful on the wet stuff but it’s good on the dry.”

For his part, David Bogie is pretty much on the limit: “There’s a little but left if I need it. Dave has the legs of me on the fast stuff but the Fiesta is nimble and agile on the twisty stuff, so there isn’t much between us.”

In third place Jock Armstrong is almost resigned: “Ive got a good gap to those behind me but I can’t do much about those two in front. In Fetteresso this morning the car was pulling 118 mph and I was hanging on tight. At the end of the stage my hands were trembling. That’s as hard as it would go.”

Mike Faulkner is holding a steady fourth ahead f Steven Clark who has moved but now has Bruce McCombie behind him after a couple of really good times in Stages 5 and 6.

Andrew Gallacher is out: “I just cut a corner and got sucked into a ditch.” And Quintin Milne is out too: “I was just too hot into a hairpin left and slid off on the outside. No damage, but well stuck.” Donnie MacDonald too is doing a bit of enforced countryside sightseeing. Whether he got a puncture before he went off or whether he got it when he went off is a moot point, but the Lancer is stuck in a ditch.

With just 4 stages gone in today's Coltel Granite City Rally, it couldn't be much tighter at the top. Dave Weston and David Bogie are tied on identical times. They tied on the first stage, Weston was a second quicker on the next, they tied again on the third, and Bogie was a second quicker on the fourth.

As for the flakes of snow, it didn’t really come to much and the sun is back out which is making our Australian visitor feel much better. Ex-pat Alan Edwards is over catching up with old friends: “I was John Bogie’s (David’s Dad) first ever co-driver but that was on a road rally in a wee Daf.” And for those of you who thought Daf only made trucks, you’ll need a really old history book to find out what a Daf was. For a start it was belt-driven!

Leaderboard after 6 (of 9) stages:

1, D Bogie, 25m 54s

2, D Weston, 25m 55s

3, J Armstrong, 26m 37s

4, M Faulkner, 27m 21s

5, S Clark, 27m 30s

6, M McCulloch, 27m 30s

7, B McCombie, 27m 44s

8, S Sinclair, 27m 45s

9, B Groundwater, 28m 06s

10, M Scott, 28m 34s