Bogie in seventh heaven

DUMFRIES rally driver David Bogie claimed his seventh Scottish Rally Championship last weekend at the Armstrong Galloway Hills Rally. The event, celebrating both its 50th year and 25 years of sponsorship by the Armstrong Group, had no less than 60 crews lining up to tackle the six stages. David Bogie came into the round needing a top five points finish to wrap up a record setting seventh Scottish title. With Kirsty Riddick – Castle Douglas – in the hot-seat once again, David was having to balance his natural speed with a no risk strategy. That was clearly taking a lot of concentration, Kirsty saying that David was talking to himself mid-stage much more than normal. After coming second fastest on the opening three stages, they stepped up the pace in the afternoon to record three fastest times in a row. That gave them the win by 27 seconds and David his seventh SRC title. The destination of the navigators, however, will be decided in the final round. Fastest in SS1, Mark McCulloch – Dumfries – and Michael Hendry slowed in SS2 when the onboard tracker system threw up a red flag warning. That turned out to be a false alarm and they were able to get their time adjusted in Rally HQ. The rest of the day was incredibly consistent, never outside the top three SRC times and grabbing second despite flirting with the bushes in front of one of the SRC cameramen. It was incredibly close for third, event sponsor Jock Armstrong and Owen Paterson actually grabbing the place on stage times, but a penalty saw them lose out on the final podium spot by just three seconds. That was inherited by Argyll winner Rory Young – Dumfries. Reunited with Allan Cathers, Rory was sampling the new Fabia on gravel for the first time.