David Bogie and Kevin Rae scored a convincing win on today’s
RSAC Scottish Rally at Dumfries. The Ford Fiesta R5 crew finished over a minute
clear of Jock Armstrong and Paula Swinscoe in the Subaru.
“It just all clicked today,” said Bogie, “the car was great,
the stages were good and the weather was fine but I had to keep focused all day
and remind myself that I wasn’t in Donegal and driving the Escort.” Regardless
of car, the fact that Bogie had been over in Donegal meant he was pretty sharp
from the off this morning: “We didn’t do anything different, it just worked and
Kevin was spot on all day as he always is.”
As for Jock: “I don’t know how he (David) does it, he’s out
driving every weekend and out drinking when he’s not driving and of course I’m
that sensible and don’t do bad things and I still can’t catch him.” And that
was just the start of the banter with David giving as good as he got, but Jock was
first to shake David by the hand at the finish. And that’s what’s god about rallying,
good camaraderie and great competition.
Rory Young managed to grab third place second time out in
the Fiesta R5 but it was close. Steven Clark took 3 seconds out of him in the
Lancer on the final stage but it wasn’t enough and he lost out by 2 seconds
finishing fourth. “Steven really deserved to finish third,” said Rory, “he was
driving that old car far quicker than it should go, I was just lucky.”
Mike Faulkner’s charged back up from the 20s after his
puncture on the opening test resulted in a strong Scottish Championship points
scoring position, with fifth place: “I had to beat Bruce McCombie today to keep
any hopes of the championship title alive, and I did it.” It was close, he got
a second puncture on the final stage: “But it didn’t cost me any time,” he
said.
Donnie MacDonald was sixth and Matthew Robinson seventh
ahead of McCombie: “I really screwed up on that last stage,” he said, “I don’t
know what went wrong. I turned into a corner fine and it just went straight on
and I spun it.”
Desi Henry felt the day worthwhile as he got some seat time
in his new Skoda but was very cautious: “I had no gear display all day, I hardly
ever knew which gear I was in!” Rounding off the top ten was Shaun Sinclair
just displacing young Greg McKnight from tenth place by 3 seconds. But Greg
didn’t care, he had been n fire all day, aiming to beat long time hero Steve
Bannister, and he did. He finished 11th and top 2WD car with Banner
in 13th place and first to shake the youngster’s hand was the legend
himself. Nice one Steve. “He drove well today,” said Steve, “he deserved it.”
Alex Curran got the top 1600 class despite the lack of 3rd
gear with Murray Coulthard finally getting to grips with gravel, second in
class and Thomas Gray won the 1400 class in his Toyota Yaris and has probably
clinched the championship class too with 3 rounds to go.
Leaderboard after 7 (of 7) stages:
1, David Bogie, 39m 29s
2, Jock Armstrong, 40m 34s
3, Rory Young, 40m 55s
4, Steven Clark, 40m 57s
5, Mike Faulkner, 41m 24s
6, Donnie MacDonald, 41m 30s
7, Matthew Robinson, 41m 59s
8, Bruce McCombie, 42m 03s
9, Desi Henry, 42m 42s
10, Shaun Sinclair, 42m 45s
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