Eighteen years after he lifted his last Scottish title, 51-year-old Jimmy Girvan clinched the County Saab Scottish Rally Championship with a dominant victory in the penultimate round, the Newton Stewart-based Merrick Forest Stages.
The rally veteran from Inverness, piloting his Subaru Impreza, completed the 70-mile event 12 seconds ahead of the Ford Focus World Rally Car driven by Northern Ireland’s Connor McCloskey.
“I’m absolutely, totally delighted,” Girvan admitted. “It’s been a long, hard season and we’ve had to work very hard to get here. I never thought when I won the title in 1990 that it would take me another 18 years to win it again.”
But while there was delight for Girvan, there was huge disappointment and pain for Scotland’s brightest young rally talent, David Bogie.
The 21-year-old from Dumfries, who has claimed maximum points in three of the championship’s rallies this season, had to win the Merrick to retain any hopes of lifting the title.
But his event came to a crashing end when, right at the end of today’s third stage, the 7.3-miler at Arroch Hill, his Toyota WRC slewed into a ditch and collided with a tree severely damaging the car.
“It’s certainly not the way you want to end your bid for the championship,” a badly shaken Bogie said afterwards. “But we’ll be back to fight for the title again next year.”
JM