Defending Scottish champions David Bogie and Kevin Rae capped a “perfect” weekend by winning Sunday’s Jim Clark Reivers Rally in Berwickshire for the third successive year.
It was also their third victory of the 2011 MSA Scottish Rally Championship and followed their triumph the previous day in the fourth round of the Dulux Trade British Rally Championship – which they also lead.
The Reivers win was all the more notable in that Bogie had switched from his familiar Mitsubishi Evo 9 – used for the BRC round – to his family’s 24-year-old MG Metro 6R4, in which his father John had taken top honours on the tarmac event in 2002.
Bogie and Rae completely dominated the event from the start, finishing the seven completed stages (SS7 was cancelled because of an accident) in a total time of forty-seven minutes and three seconds.
Euan Thorburn, co-driven by Paul Beaton, were runners-up, one minute and eleven seconds adrift, while Jock Armstrong, with navigator Barry McNulty sitting in for Kirsty Riddick, secured the final podium spot, another ten seconds back.
The result means that after four rounds, Bogie now has an eleven point lead over Thorburn. Mike Faulkner is a further one point behind in third.
The Dumfries driver set a blistering pace from the start on Sunday, and already had a twelve second advantage over Thorburn after the opening test, Harehead 1.
With four stages completed, Bogie’s advantage had increased to 38 seconds, with Thorburn rueing a spin on some loose gravel which lost him valuable seconds.
Armstrong was up to third and pushing hard after what he admitted had been a slow start, and Faulkner (“I was wrong to got out on intermediates, it’s back to slicks”) was four seconds back in fourth alongside Peter Foy.
Robbie Head and Claire Mole were holding steady in fifth, with Andy Horne a further four seconds adrift in sixth. He returned to second service with part of a fence post jammed into the right rear wheel guard of his DAM 4100GTi but it had apparently done little to hinder his progress.
Six stages in, and Bogie’s lead over Thorburn was now just over a minute, with a hard-charging Armstrong still third, sixteen seconds adrift, while four seconds separated fourth-placed Faulkner from Head in fifth.
The top five held position through the final re-routed eighth stage, following the cancellation of SS7 Fogo 2.
At the finish before an appreciative crowd in Duns town centre, Bogie reflected on a remarkable weekend.
“To come to the Jim Clark, and win the International Rally and the Reivers is just awesome to be honest – it’s hard to put into words”, said Bogie: “When we came here at the end of last week we were targeting one event at a time. If I’d won one I’d have been delighted. To get both is really something. It also sets us up well for the Donegal Rally next month, when we’ll again be using the Metro”.
Thorburn pondered on what might have been on his home event, and admitted there had been too many unforced errors to threaten the winning duo. But given he had had to retire his Evo from the previous day’s International Rally with throttle problems, he was happy enough.
“We were a bit loose on the high speed stuff, a bit untidy in places, and we had a spin on the last stage coming onto the main road”, said Thorburn: “David was in a class of his own, but we held in there and it’s good points for the championship”.
Armstrong was also satisfied with his day’s work, following mixed fortunes over the first three rounds.
“We had a slow start but once into our stride things got a bit better”, said Armstrong: “If we were out doing another tarmac rally tomorrow, we might be on the pace. It’s always nice to go for the win obviously, but it wasn’t to be, and at least we’ve got our campaign back on track”.
It was Faulkner’s second successive fourth place finish, and he was satisfied with the day’s work: “Compared with previous Jim Clarks, it’s a good result for us and I would probably have settled for that at the outset. We tried as hard as we could but couldn’t quite catch Jock, but we’re equally happy to have kept Robbie behind us. It was certainly a nerve-wracking last stage”.
Head, who has now finished fifth on each of the past three rounds, had the distinction of winning the first Jim Clark Rally over closed public roads in 1997. Despite a scare, the Lanark competitor enjoyed his reacquaintance with the Berwickshire lanes (“it takes a while to get dialled back in”) and said Faulkner had definitely been in his sights in the final stages.
“Mike had an eight second advantage at one point, then we took four out of him and I thought this is definitely game on. Then we had a big delay because of the stage cancellation, and because we were on medium tyres, we lost the heat in them. That led to our massive moment, in fact I don’t know how we got away with it. We were well off the road, and it just unsettled us completely”.
The Duns crew of Douglas Brydon and David O’Brien showed their expertise on tarmac with a fine sixth place overall in a Subaru Impreza
“We’re very happy with sixth in such a competitive field. We had a good run through the afternoon stages. It’s been a busy weekend, having done the National event as well, where we ended up fourth”, said Brydon.
Seventh placed Paul Benn and Richard Cooke from Cumbria had put in a later entry – Benn taking to the wheel of his Ford Focus WRC 01, which was originally scheduled to be driven by Granite winner Dave Weston, before he pulled out because of work commitments.
“I think Dave would probably have done better with the car”, said Benn: “But we’ve had a great day, although as Richard and I were saying – as we get older, it all seems to get faster!”.
Stonehaven’s Barry Groundwater, co-driven by Neil Shanks from Elgin, followed up a sixth place finish on the National Rally the previous day in his Mitsubishi Evo 9, with an eighth overall on the SRC event.
Said Groundwater: “We’re happy where we are in such a strong field. I only do the one tarmac event a year, and to get two top ten finishes is really good for us”.
Oban-based Stephen and Kevin Lockhart brought their Mitsubishi Evo 7 home in an impressive ninth overall – mirroring their result on their previous SRC outing, the Border Counties, earlier in the year.
The first two-wheel drive car home was the historic-spec Ford Escort Mk2 of Steve Bannister and Louise Sutherland who rounded off the top ten, and took a class win.
Bannister admitted he’d been keeping a close eye on “the young lads” chasing him throughout the day, with particular reference to Quintin Milne, co-driven by Martin Forrest, who took Class 8 honours in his Mk2, finishing eleventh overall, just three seconds adrift of Bannister.
Peter Taylor, with Andrew Roughead on the notes, brought his Renault Clio home first in class, fourteenth overall, on only his third rally in the car.
Alasdair Graham, co-driven by Kenny McGuire, had a “terrible” day plagued with mechanical problems, but still managed to bring his Vauxhall Corsa back to the finish to take top honours in the 1600cc category.
Arguably one of the most remarkable recoveries of the day – on a day of remarkable recoveries – was that of Alness ace David Wilson and navigator Dave Robson from Jedburgh in their Mitsubishi Evo 9. The pair survived a 100 mph crash on the second stage, with the car landing back on the road facing the wrong way (“all I remember is trees and greenery”, said Robson), and went on to finish 26th overall.
“There was a stunned silence for about ten minutes after we came out of the stage!”, recalled Wilson: “Things started to go a bit better towards the end of the day, and our stage times were amongst the top five, but we had a bent arm from the earlier incident, so the car was all over the place, which made it rather uncomfortable”.
Of the 100 starters, there were 67 classified finishers.
Competitors will now prepare for a return to gravel stages on the Dumfries-based RSAC Scottish Rally – the fifth round of the SRC – which takes place on Saturday 25th June.
Overall Classification:
01) David Bogie (Dumfries)/Kevin Rae (Hawick) MG Metro 6R4 – 47m 03.2s
02) Euan Thorburn (Duns)/Paul Beaton (Inverness) Mitsubishi Evo 9 – 48m 14.5s
03) Jock Armstrong (Castle Douglas)/Barry McNulty (Enniskillen) Subaru Impreza – 48m 24.9s
04) Mike Faulkner (Kirtlebridge)/Peter Foy (Bingley) Mitsubishi Evo 6 – 48m 39.2s
05) Robbie Head (Lanark)/Claire Mole (Paxton) Mitsubishi Evo 9 – 48m 54.6s
06) Douglas Brydon (Duns)/David O’Brien (Duns) Subaru Impreza – 49m 05.3s
07) Paul Benn (Cockermouth)/Richard Cooke (Keswick) Ford Focus WRC 01 – 49m 41.7s
08) Barry Groundwater (Stonehaven)/Neil Shanks (Elgin) Mitsubishi Evo 9 – 49m 56.9s
09) Stephen Lockhart (Oban)/Kevin Lockhart (Oban) Mitsubishi Evo 7 – 50m 57.9s
10) Steve Bannister (Malton)/Louise Sutherland (Hawick) Ford Escort Mk2 – 51m 07.8s
– Credit: www.scottishrallychampionship.co.uk.