David Bogie extended his lead in the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship this weekend when, following a faultless drive, he recorded his second victory of the season by winning the Pirelli International Rally. The Scottish Mitsubishi driver led the third round of the UK’s premier rally series from start to finish and, after completing a total of 93 miles on Kielder Forest’s demanding gavel roads, he crossed the line over a minute ahead of his closest rival, Ireland’s Robert Barrable in a Skoda.
Starting and finishing at Carlisle Racecourse, the rally kicked off with two seven-mile runs through Newcastleton Forest on Friday evening, punctuated by an autograph signing event in Newcastleton village centre. Following the overnight halt, a further 79 competitive miles, split into 11 stages, were tackled on Saturday, all of them taking place over the dry and dusty gravel roads in Kielder Forest.
Round one-winner Bogie was fastest through both of Friday’s stages, which enabled him to return to Carlisle for the overnight halt 9.3 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans, who was 11.6 seconds ahead of Robert Barrable, the Irishman now getting used to his Skoda S2000.
Saturday morning comprised two stages, followed by a remote service halt at a car park overlooking Kielder Water, before the same two stages were contested again. It soon became clear that Bogie was in control and he retuned to the day’s main service at Carlisle Racecourse with a 32-second lead.
His cause was made easier after second-placed Evans had suffered a puncture in SS6 and lost well over a minute and dropped back to fifth as he drove the rest of the stage with a flat tyre, damaging his car’s brakes and suspension in the process. This left the Skoda S2000s of Barrable and Greer to battle it out for third place.
Bogie consolidated his lead over the day’s remaining six stages by setting the fastest time on all of them. The rest of Barrable’s rally also went well, but for Greer, the final step of the podium was suddenly in doubt when his car started to handle very strangely on stage nine, the back end of his Skoda feeling very loose.
With nothing visibly wrong he continued with caution, until the final stage when the car suddenly turned left and into a ditch. Fortunately he managed to get going again and stay ahead of Evans, who was now in fourth place after Jason Pritchard had a two-minute confrontation with another Kielder ditch.
Bogie’s second victory of the season sees him increase his lead in the Dulux Trade British Rally Championship to 58 points ahead of Evans on 51 in second and Greer third with 44.
The Dulux Trade MSA Formula 2 British Rally Championship
The fight for supremacy in the F2 category turned out to be the most intriguing battle of the event. Marty McCormack edged ahead on Friday night by just 0.6 seconds in front of Mark Donnelly and then Craig Breen, who was just 1.2 seconds further back.
After Saturday morning’s four stages, Finn Jukka Korhonen re-claimed the lead of the two-wheel-drive category after being fastest through SS1. His fortunes were helped at the expense of McCormack’s, who headed the category at the start of the day, but was slowed when his Citroen developed a gear-change problem.
Meanwhile, F2 Championship leader following round two Siim Plangi was having a rally to forget: After a puncture on stage one, a problem with his pacenotes meant he lost concentration crossing a bridge on stage six, spun his Renault Twingo backwards into a tree, but fortunately was able to continue.
After collecting a 1-min 40secs penalty for leaving Park Fermé ten minutes late – having slept through his alarm on Saturday morning – Mark Donnelly was on a mission and went from 12th to third by SS6. He continued to set a series of blistering times over the next five stages – as did McCormack – who was also fighting back after his earlier transmission troubles.
The upshot of their efforts meant that only 2.2 seconds separated the top three with just one stage to go. A storming drive by McCormack through the 8.7-miles of Chirdonhead Forest saw him set a time 13 seconds quicker than anyone else.
Donnelly was also on a charge but, halfway through the final stage, a large stone jammed one of the rear wheels. This made the rear of his Renault slide all over the place and eventually cause him to spin and stall at a chicane, where an agonising 30-seconds were lost whilst he tried to get the car going again.
At the end of the stage, the time sheets revealed that McCormack had won by a margin of 19.2 seconds ahead of Korhunen, who finished 10.1 seconds ahead of Craig Breen, with Donnelly eventually crossing the line three seconds behind in fourth. Plangi returned to Carlisle in fifth and in doing so, just manage to hang onto his F2 Championship lead by one point ahead of Breen.
Even though victory in the F2 category was snatched from his grasp in the closing stages, Korhunen came away from the Pirelli Rally extremely satisfied with his weekend’s work, as no only did he claim second place, he was also presented with the Pirelli Star Driver Award at the finish.
Fiesta Sport Trophy / Rally 2
Craig Breen was the class of the Fiesta Sport Trophy field, having led the series for R2 Class Fords from start to finish. John MacCrone was initially Breen’s closest rival, but an excursion into a Northumberland ditch on the first of Saturday’s stages brought an abrupt end to his weekend’s rallying.
This left Nick Christofaro and Osian Pryce to take up the chase for the remainder of the event and although battling between themselves, never got close enough to Breen to challenge for the lead.
Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Teams’ Championship
The battle for the Team’s title got closer this weekend. With MacCrone retiring, Breen was the sole finishing M-Sport Ford Rally Team entry, but he did so ahead of Plangi in the only Autosport Technology Renault Twingo to finish.
The outcome reduces Autosport Technology’s lead to 32 points ahead of M-Sport Ford in second, 586 Sport in third and Team CR2 Max in fourth.
The fourth round of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship sees teams swap from gravel to asphalt roads, when they head north of the Scottish border for the Kelso-based Jim Clark International Rally on 27 & 28 May. For more information on the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship visit www.rallybrc.co.uk