Rally - Welsh trip

The Scots may have done well on grass at the weekend, but they didn't fare so well on tarmac or gravel. In fact, there was no champagne at all for the Scots in Wales for the Nicky Grist Stages with David Bogie finishing in fourth place. He started well, second quickest on the opening two stages but broke an intercooler pipe on the third which also meant a slow-ish run through SS4 to reach service.

The two day event comprised a National A and B event using a mixture of gravel stages in the Halfway and Crychan forests on Saturday, and the asphalt roads of Epynt Ranges on Sunday.

Final positions:

1, Elfyn Evans/Craig Parry (Ford Fiesta R5)  1:18:48.4

2, Tom Cave/James Morgan (Ford Fiesta R5) +0:01:11.4

3, Desi Henry/Liam Moynihan (Skoda Fabia R5) +0:02:01.8

4, David Bogie/James O'Reilly (Skoda Fabia R5) +0:02:48.5

5, Josh Moffett/John Rowan (Ford Fiesta R5) +0:03:05.9

6, Jonathan Greer/Kirsty Riddick (Citroen DS3 R5) +0:03:08.0

11, Alex Laffey/Andrew Roughead (Ford Fiesta R5 EVO) +0:06:29.7

21, Lee Hastings/Julie McGuire (Subaru Impreza) +0:13:37.8

22, John Morrison/Peter Carstairs (Mitsubishi Evo 9) +0:14:49.7

24, Blair Brown/Richard Simmonds (Ford Fiesta R2T) +0:16:31.8

Donnie MacDonald retired with head gasket failure from the main event and Euan Thorburn who had been contesting the National B event retired with a cracked manifold on the 4th stage. And just in case you're interested, Bogie's big rival Fredrik Ahlin clouted a log pile and dropped well down the finishing order.

Closer to home, Martin Craik and Steven Brown finished 5th overall on the Greystoke Stages Rally in Cumbria on Sunday with Angus Lawrie scoring a class win in 11th place overall in his Vauxhall Corsa and Keith Riddick finishing second in class and 13th overall in his MG. Scott McCombie had been holding third place overall till the final stage when he dropped off the leaderboard, but there's no news of why - yet!