It was ‘business as usual’ for David Bogie at the McDonald
& Munro Speyside Stages today. Even with a ‘new’ co-driver, young Andrew
Roughead, the Skoda looked assured and composed all day.
“It’s never easy,” said David, “the pace was good here today
but it’ll need to be better for next week at the Pirelli, I messed up last time
out on the Border. We dropped a wee bit of time this morning with a puncture
but after that we just kept it controlled. It was good seat-time for next
weekend.”
Also here for some extra seat-time ahead of next week’s
event in Carlisle, second placed Desi Henry was pleased with his pace despite
his troubles: “We had 3 punctures today,” said Desi, “but then smoke started to
come out from under the bonnet at the end of Stage 4. That was scary. We had the
extinguishers out but didn’t need them. It was just an oil leak but we caught
it in time.”
With two Skodas in the top two places, third placed Euan
Thorburn salvaged something for Ford: “We struggled in the morning, but our
times got better in the afternoon,” said Euan having switched back to Ford
after last year’s run out with the Peugeot.
But it wasn’t Bogie who led at the start. Jock Armstrong led
after 2 stages, then Bogie after 3 with Armstrong back in the lead after 4. At
the end of stage 5 they were tied: “It was a good battle while it lasted,” said
Jock, “then in the second last stage we went off on a 6th gear
corner. It was a Left 1 into 4 at a junction and just overcooked it, but we
managed to get it out without help.” He finished 11th.
Mark Donnelly scored fourth first time out on gravel with
his Fiesta WRC: “We did a tarmac event at the start of the year,” said Mark, “but
this was the first time on gravel, we were just happy to get round in one piece,
but what a cracking rally. Fair play to David he didn’t put a wheel wrong.”
Mike Faulkner was fifth: “That was as hard as it would go,”
said Mike, “we rode our luck a few times. We were right up a banking in that second
last test,” he grinned, “but we had a good battle all day with Bruce (McCombie)
and Shaun (Sinclair).”
Sinclair was only 5 seconds behind at the finish after
McCombie got a bit crossed up on the very slippy last section on the
penultimate test, which also caught out Dale Robertson who might have made the
top ten first time out in the Fiesta R5. “That wasn’t a stage,” said Shaun, “it
was a grassy field between the trees!”
Greg McKnight was 8th but happy with a finish as
the poor wee soul was suffering from man-flu! (Women just don’t understand do
they?) Mark McCulloch was 9th and Donnie MacDonald rounded off the
top ten.
Quintin Milne was top 2WD car but only after a real tussle
with Dougal Brown.
Top Ten:
1, David Bogie, 41m 55s
2, Desi Henry, 42m 34s
3, Euan Thorburn, 42m 37s
4, Martin Donnelly, 42m 49s
5, Mike Faulkner, 43m 32s
6, Shaun Sinclair, 43m 37s
7, Bruce McCombie, 44m 02s
8, Greg McKnight, 44m 14s
9, Mark McCulloch, 44m 32s
10, Donnie MacDonald, 45m 09s
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