84 crews lined up to do battle over the eight stages of the McDonald & Munro Speyside Stages, Round One of the 2025 Asset Alliance Group Scottish Rally Championship.
Making himself a 12-time Speyside winner and Irish co-driver John Rowan a three-time winner, it was an almost perfect event for six-time Scottish Champion David Bogie. Debuting a new Skoda Fabia Rally2, they led from the start. The only blemish on their day was a puncture they discovered on a road section during the second loop. That was the only issue on their way to take the win by 47 seconds after a very cool and calm performance.
Scott MacBeth/Dan Forsyth have had an excellent start to the year in their older Skoda Fabia and came into this round on good form. Particularly keen to do well on Dan’s home event, they were absolutely flying, never outside the top four with a couple of equal fastest stage times to boot. 3rd overall for most of the day, they were able to snatch a fantastic 2nd on a dramatic final stage.
The crew who experienced that final stage drama were reigning Scottish Champion Euan Thorburn, reunited with long-time co-driver Paul Beaton. Second for most of the day, Euan was feeling distinctly out of practice and regretting not doing a pre-event test. Towards the end of the day, they were on their normal pace, fastest in SS7 before unfortunately losing all their brakes on the final test. A great job to keep the car on the road and only lose one place on the leaderboard.
There was an absolutely cracking battle for the Challengers win with Brett McKenzie (Elgin) & Barry Young (Navenby) tying on time at the finish with Duncan Campbell (Ayr) & Michael Cruickshank (Crieff). It was a classic rally contest between the Evo and Impreza, with Duncan & Michael’s new Subaru on top after six stages. Then Brett & Barry put on a late charge to equal the Subaru’s time by the finish, with the Innoflate Evo getting the nod due to its quicker time in SS1. Brett, showing he knows how to party, planning a celebratory Chinese take away.
That tie at the finish was actually a 3 way one with the eventual G & M Mechanical Services 2 Wheel-Drive winners Dougal Brown/Lewis Rochford. After their 2024 Snowman ended early due to engine issues, they were keen to bounce back here. Experimenting with different tyre choices, they were right in the 2WD mix, fastest 2WD in the first gravel stage, and lying second behind Ross Jarrett/Susan Shanks after six stages. When the blue Escort retired with brake issues, Dougal & Lewis were perfectly placed to capitalize, grabbing 17th overall in a nice return to the top of the 2WD rankings.
Second SRC 2WD home, Justin Gunning/Michael Moates grabbed first blood in the Moates Offshore Juniors. Continuing from where they left off at the last round of 2024, they quickly knocked the winter rust off and established a Juniors lead. The only drama was a bit of underbody damage after SS5, but that didn’t cost them any time and was easily sorted in service. Finally seeing the Speyside finish after two failed attempts, they took a commanding Juniors win by almost 4 minutes.
Finishing 7th in the 2WD category, Escort legends Steve Bannister/Brian Hodgson grabbed 33rd place overall, top historic car home, and the win in the Haddo Energy Super Seniors. It had been a long time since Steve had made the long trip from Yorkshire to Elgin, but he showed he was still a force to be reckoned with, embarrassing some much more modern machinery during the day.
Jack Ryan/Robin Nicolson’s morning was very eventful, parking the Impreza in an SS3 ditch for almost 2 minutes. Some dedicated helpers eventually dug them out, and they carried on with a cockpit full of ditch water. The rest of the day was very good, climbing 30 places up the leaderboard from 67th to 37th at the finish. That was enough to take first blood in the Groundwater Lift Trucks Subaru Cup.
Reigning Ladies champion Aileen Forrest had a couple of new names to battle with for the Speyside, the Evo pilot squaring off against both Natalie/Christina Robinson in their Peugeot 208s. Unfortunately, Natalie went off the road in SS3, but Aileen and Christina were swapping times, less than 20 seconds apart after four stages. The next loop saw Aileen and co-driver Paul Gribben make their move, really enjoying Whiteash and taking advantage of a puncture and an off for Christina and co-driver Grum Willcock. It still remained close, but the purple pearl held on to the win by 37 seconds at the finish. A good way for Aileen to celebrate her birthday weekend.
Overall McDonald & Munro Speyside Stages Results
01: D. Bogie/J. Rowan (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) – 37 min 00s
02: S. MacBeth/D. Forsyth (Škoda Fabia R5) + 47s
03: E. Thorburn/P. Beaton (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5) + 53s
04: S. Beattie/W. Davies Peredur (Ford Fiesta R5) + 1min 14s
05: D. Sigurdarson/A. Sigurdarson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) + 1min 25s
06: J. Armstrong/O. Paterson (Škoda Fabia Proto) + 1min 40s
07: M. McCulloch/M. Hendry (Proton Satria Evo S2000) + 1min 53s
08: S. Petch/M. Wilkinson (Ford Fiesta Rally2) + 2min 02s
09: D. Gass/E. Sherry (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5) + 2min 07s
10: B. McCombie/S. Donnelly (Ford Fiesta R5) + 2min 30s
See the full event results here.