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 1st chicane in the 1st
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
