Bogie pumps in spectacular final stage to overturn Mcveigh for Midland Moto Stages win

Midland Moto Stages

Organiser: Midland Motor Club When: March 19/20 Where: Longford Championships: Loughran Signs.ie Rally Championship Stages: 9 Starters: 77

David Bogie made a lengthy trip from Dumfries to Ireland worthwhile by winning the Midland Stages in his Skoda Fabia R5. He and co-driver Kevin Rae were preparing for next month’s Circuit of Ireland Rally with team CA1 Sport, and headed Paddy Mcveigh after a stunning final stage.

Less than 3s separated the top three – Mcveigh, David Bogie and Chris Armstrong – over the opening test Killashee. That was a sign of things to come over the day’s mostly fast flowing stages, helped by the ideal benign conditions. Mcveigh was able to give his Subaru Impreza WRC its head, while, for Bogie, the rally was ideal for him to chalk up some asphalt mileage ahead of the European, British and Irish Tarmac counter on the Circuit of Ireland.

By first service, the cars had covered 24 miles and Mcveigh took just 20m11s to complete them. Bogie was 17s in arrears and Armstrong 29s back.

Just a handful of seconds covered the following drivers too, Stephen Mccann, Vivian Hamill, Pauric Duffy and Gary Kiernan.

The middle loop of stages was curtailed to just the two shorter stages, as stage six was blocked by an earlier accident.

By second service the positions at the top were little changed. Mcveigh had extended his lead to 22s over Bogie, with Armstrong 37s behind the leader and still best of the two-wheel-drive brigade.

Kiernan had put on a push and was fourth in his Escort, although just 1.4s ahead of Hamill.

Bogie was fastest in stage eight (stage seven didn’t run) to reduce the gap to leader Mcveigh to just 15.7s. On the final stage Bogie really went for it. His time was 25s faster than his first run over the same stage. He was also 20s faster than Mcveigh to win by 4.6s.

Armstrong again showed great speed in his Escort on his way to third overall. Sean Gallagher/ Barry Mcnulty won Group N in their Mitsubishi Lancer and Kyle White/sean Topping had a very impressive victory in the Juniors with their Citroen C2R2.