Bogie wins Speyside duel

Just as it had been on the previous round of the ARR Craib MSA Scottish Rally Championship, it was a close fought contest between the Dumfries driver and series leader Euan Thorburn from Duns.

However, when the Borderer picked up a puncture on the penultimate stage, the win was there for the taking.

Bogie and Hawick co-driver Kevin Rae completed the eight Morayshire forest stages in a total time of 41 minutes 21 seconds in their Ford Fiesta R5+, finishing thirteen seconds ahead of the Ford Focus WRC of Thorburn and navigator Paul Beaton from Inverness. Jock Armstrong and Paul Swinscoe, in a Subaru Impreza, secured the final podium spot, a minute and a half further back.

By the mid-way point of the rally, Bogie was leading his Duns rival by just one second: the pair having beaten the bogey time on both the five-and-a-half miles of SS3 Meikle Balloch, and the following seven-and-a-half-mile run through Whitehaugh.

"The changeable conditions are making it very difficult, but we're getting quicker and quicker as the day goes on", said Bogie: "Unfortunately, so is Euan".

So it proved, with Thorburn taking a second out of the five-time champion on the famed Gartly Moor test to make it all square with three stages remaining, and then a further three seconds on the five-and-a-half miles of Balloch to edge into the lead.

It all started to go wrong for the Focus crew on the road section to the second last stage at Ben Aigan: Said Thorburn: "Something felt wrong at the back of the car. I actually got out and checked the tyre pressures but they seemed fine, so we went into the stage. By the end, we had a rear flat, and lost fourteen seconds. With just four miles remaining, it was too much time to make up. I'm really disappointed. It was nip and tuck all day and we were moving ahead. It definitely feels we've missed out on a win again, having lost by just over three seconds on the Scottish because of mistakes".

The result, Bogie's second successive win in the R5+, means he now has three victories to Thorburn's two in this year's SRC: "It was a long hard day – the pace was hot from the start, and there was very little in it", said a relieved champion at the finish in Elgin: "It's great to get a win, and particularly on this event, where Kevin and I first had success in 2008. I was also very happy with the way the car performed. What it lacks in horsepower, it makes up in cornering and braking. So on today's short sharp stages it was mix and match – some suited us, some suited Euan in the more powerful Focus". Dale Robertson from Duns was delighted with his win in the Group N category in his Mitsubishi EVO 9 alongside Paul Mc guire from Tranent. The Borderer was eleventh overall, tenth in the points: "It was a great event for us, the stages were nice and smooth. I changed to Pirelli tyres today and they've made a big difference- especially through the faster sections, the car just sits there. I also quite like setting the car up for the twisty technical stages. All in all, I felt we made a lot of progress. But we'll have to win GpN on the remaining three rounds to get a chance of taking the championship, so there's work to be done", said Robertson.

Amongst the 2-wheel drive entries, there was a class win for Lauder's Callum Atkinson in his Ford Fiesta – despite a drive-shaft breaking on the “very last corner of the very last stage”. He managed to nurse the car home, but, having lost forward drive, had to reverse over the finish line.

Leitholm's Keiran Renton, with Jedburgh's Dave Robson on the notes, finished third in the 1600cc category in his Fiesta, but conceded that it had not really been his best day in a rally car.

“We lost around fifteen seconds on the first stage – I found the grip levels difficult in the Fiesta - and that was really it for us – we never managed to make up the time”, said Renton.

The sixth round of the 2014 ARR Craib MSA Scottish Rally Championship is the GWF Energy Merrick Stages, based in Wigtown, on Saturday, September 2nd.