Scotland’s brightest young rally prospect, David Bogie, all but secured his first Hankook Scottish Rally Championship when his main rival for the title crashed out on the first stage of the Merrick Forest Stages Rally.
The 22-year-old was able to control his pace throughout the 45-mile event to eventually finish third, and second Scottish Championship-registered driver behind the Subaru of winner Jock Armstrong from Castle Douglas.
“This is a massive result for me,” Bogie, who crashed his Toyota Corolla World Rally Car in the corresponding event last year, said today. “It was unfortunate for Mike (Faulkner) to crash, but after that I was able to back off.
“Obviously when Mike went off on the first stage it made it very difficult for us to maintain a pace where we weren’t catching anybody and we weren’t losing time; not easy to do. But we were more than happy to finish second in the championship points.
“But the championship’s not done and dusted yet. It can still all change on the final round, the McRae Stages Rally in perth next month. But for now I’ve got to be happy with how things stand in the championship. As long as I finish ahead of Mike in Perth, I’ll be champion.”
With Bogie backing off, Armstrong dominated the event winning four of the five stages to finish 40 seconds ahead of Belfast’s Jonathan Greer in a Mitsubishi Evo 9. Bogie was a further 24secs adrift.
JM