Rally - Galloway gallopers

A somewhat belated roundup of Saturday's Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally saw David Henderson and Chris Lees score their first ever outright victory on gravel while David Bogie drove a calculated rally to secure his sixth Scottish National title although John Rowan will have to wait to see what others do with regard to the Co-driver's title.

Bogie's only real rival for this year's title was Michael Binnie but he and Claire Mole crashed out big time on the fourth stage trying to catch up after a slow start. That left the way open for Jock Armstrong and Cameron Fair to grab a subdued third place overall.

Subdued, because there was no champagne finish to this year's event as a mark of respect to another rather more sad event of much more national importance happening elsewhere. Entirely unconnected with rallying another family's, and nation's, loss was felt quite deeply in the heart of Galloway.

With less than a minute covering the top three, Angus Lawrie and Paul Gribben proved best of the rest finishing fourth where just 16 seconds covered the next four places.

Top 2WD was the historic Escort Mk2 of Stuart Egglestone and Brian Hodgson in a scintillating 9th place overall with that pesky little Peugeot of Peter Stewart and Harry Marchbank only 27 seconds behind in 11th place. Some pace lads!

There will of course be a full report in Thursday's 'Motorsport News' and a much more detailed report in a certain on-line mag to follow ...

Top Ten:

1 David Henderson/Chris Lees (Ford Fiesta Rally2) 41m 37s

2 David Bogie/John Rowan (Ford Fiesta Rally2) +35s

3 Jock Armstrong/Cameron Fair (Subaru Impreza) +57s

4 Angus Lawrie/Paul Gribben (Mitsubishi Lancer E9) +1m 33s

5 John Wink/Neil Shanks (Hyundai i20 R5) +1m 39s

6 Mark McCulloch/Michael Hendry (Proton Satria Evo 2000) +1m 43s

7 Hugh Brunton/Drew Sturrock (Ford Fiesta R5) +1m 49s

8 Willie Paterson/Tom Hynd (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) +3m 35s

9 Stuart Egglestone/Brian Hodgson (Ford Escort Mk2) +3m 58s

10 Andy Scott/Patrick Walsh (Ford Fiesta S2000T) +4m 03s