Rally - Bogie leads

It makes you wonder what David Bogie has for breakfast before a rally. After two forest stages and one ‘spectator special’ he’s already half a minute clear and up the road. Or maybe he gets shorter stages than everyone else.

Only kidding, but the newly liveried Fiesta has a 31 second margin  over two drivers tying for second place, Jock Armstrong and Rory Young. The most surprised driver of that trio is Rory: “I don’t know what I’m doing up here, it’s all down to the car” referring to the Buckley prepped Fiesta. But Rory isn’t telling the whole truth. He farms Christmas trees for a living, he knows all the trees personally down here!

Only two seconds behind this pair is Steven Clark so the fight for third is pretty fierce. As ever Donnie MacDonald has got good pace and he’s holding fifth place ahead of Matthew Robinson who was lucky to reach service let alone hold sixth place: “It was the 1^st chicane in the 1^st stage. I was just carrying too much speed, and it was slippery. It got all out of shape and I just took out the whole chicane. The last I saw of the Marshal in my mirror he was waving to me. But maybe he was waving his fist at me!”

Barry Groundwater has retired from the fray, overshooting a corner and rumbling over a banking, No damage but the Lancer’s rear wheels were in the air, so no grip. Mark McCulloch is gone too. He hit a rock and the impact broke a bolt in the bottom suspension arm and damaged the chassis. The boys worked frantically to repair the chassis and get it re-attached. No luck.

Mike Faulkner was more fortunate although he’s currently in11th place: “I hit a rock in the first stage and punctured a front tyre.” He lost nearly a minute rumbling out on the rim. Freddie Milne hit the same rock and suffered the same fate.

Desi Henry is in trouble with the Fabia S2000 as well: “There’s a fault with the potentiometer (No, I don’t know either – Ed.) but it’s making gear selection difficult. If we can’t fix it at service, we’ll have to pull out, I don’t want to risk the engine.”

And you know what? Summer has arrived in Dumfries. It’s tee shirt weather down here now.

Leaderboard after 3 (of 7) stages:

1, David Bogie, 12m 28s

2= Jock Armstrong, 12m 59s

2= Rory Young, 12m 59s

4, Steven Clark, 13m 01s

5, Donnie MacDonald, 13m 09s

6, Matthew Robinson, 13m 21s