The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Bogie in fine form
Speyside rally,
Dumfries driver David Bogie stormed to victory by winning all 10 stages in the Scottish Rally Championship’s Speyside Stages at Elgin on Saturday.
Nearly 100 crews took part on Saturday with five-time Scottish champion Bogie dominating the event.
Co-driven by John Rowan, the Skoda Fabia R5 pilot set the pace through the opening Cooper Park spectator stages before powering through the following forest tests.
Such was Bogie’s dominance, he defeated his rivals by more than a minute to take a record ninth Speyside Stages victory ahead of the returning Jock Armstrong’s Subaru Impreza.
Fred Milne took his Impreza WRC to third place in the SRC standings thanks to the final overall podium spot going to an unregistered Rhys Yates.
Bogie said: “It was a great day.
“We won all 10 stages which was a nice bonus. I’m notoriously bad through Cooper Park, it’s a stage I never usually enjoy so the two fastest times through there really pushed us on and we managed to get the 10 from 10.
“We’d love to be back next year to make it 10 wins on the Speyside.”
Armstrong was pleased with his display in his first appearance since serving a sixmonth ban following an incident at the Solway Coast Rally, near Kirkcudbright, last October.
After Saturday’s race, the Castle Douglas driver said: “I haven’t been near the car since the Galloway Hills (last September) but kept fit and tried to forget about the rallying. To come here and finish second without a proper test is great for our championship.
“We didn’t have any expectations but knew we’d be there or thereabouts.
“We improved drastically throughout the day.
“If we get some reliability and a bit of luck, fingers crossed we should be in championship contention this year.”
Milne was out in a WRC for just the third time on the Speyside and, co-driven by Patrick Walsh, was delighted to claim his first Scottish championship podium with third.
The Banchory driver said: “It was a brilliant day. I’m kicking myself though as I used the first half of the day as a mini-test to get myself bedded back into the car as it’s tricky through low-speed corners but we plan to be out for the full year in it.
“To get this podium is a surprise, it’ll take a while to sink in.”
“We’d love to be back next year to make it 10 wins on the Speyside”