Scotland’s two most talented young rally stars, 19-year-old Dave Weston jnr and 22-year-old David Bogie, bid to unsettle defending British champ Keith Cronin when they tackle the Carlisle-based Pirelli International Rally today.
While Irishman Cronin, who won the season’s British Rally Championship opener in North Wales last month, is bidding for back-to-back titles, he faces stiff competition from the Scots duo.
Dumfries driver Bogie, the 2009 Hankook Scottish Rally champ, heads into the 100 miles of demanding and ultra fast Kielder Forest stages fresh from victory six days ago in the Granite City Rally.
“We blew away some cobwebs and hopefully proved we’ve cured the power problem which handicapped us in the opening round of the British,” Bogie, who will again drive his Mitsubishi Evo IX, said.
“I love the Kielder stages, but their also some of the toughest not just in the UK, but in Europe. We know we we can be fast this weekend. All we need is a bit of reliability.”
Weston jnr meanwhile will bid to improve just one place after finishing second behind Cronin in the opening round. And the Aberdeen driver has already won over the Kielder stages this year.
“Yeh, we did the Border Counties Rally last month which used stages in Kielder,” Weston jnr, who like Cronin will drive a Subaru Impreza, explained, “and we won the event, so that’s given us a bit of confidence.
“It was a great result to finish second in the opening round in Wales and we can not only maintain that pace but hopefully increase it a notch and put Keith under more pressure. Another podium would be good, but it would be great to win in Kielder again.”
The two-day rally, based at the Carlisle Racecourse, tackles three stages today in Kershope Forest before restarting tomorrow for three loops of three stages in Kielder.
JM