Bogie the man to beat for Snowman title
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
REIGNING Scottish and British champions David Bogie and co-driver Kevin Rae head an impressive entry of nearly 120 crews for tomorrow’s Arnold Clark-Thistle Hotel Snowman Rally in the Highland Capital.
The three-time Scottish title winners are seeking a second successive victory on the Snowman, which marks the opening round of this year’s MSA Scottish Rally Championship.
They will, however, face fierce competition over the 44-miles of classic forest stages to the north and south of Inverness.
Bogie will be followed off the start line by 2011 Snowman and Scottish runner-up Euan Thorburn (Duns), who has Paul Beaton, of Inverness, as his co-driver in a newly-acquired Ford Focus WRC 01.
In third it will be the Mitsubishi Evo 6 of Mike Faulkner and his navigator Peter Foy, who finished in that placing in the championship, and fourth in the Snowman 12 months ago.
Since becoming the first driver to achieve such a notable double, Bogie, from Dumfries, has been weighing up options as to how to advance his rally career, but he is fully focussed on trying to defend the title he won in Inverness last year
"The Snowman is a great rally," he said. " They’re awesome stages, some of the best in Scotland, and the spectator interest is unbelievable.
"It gives us an option to continue and go for a crack at a fourth championship and a chance to make history, which would be unbelievable.
"Our Mitsubishi Evo 9 is beginning to show its age, but I still think we can squeeze one more season out of it yet."
Faulkner harbours similar feelings over his own ageing car, but insists he will be going all out to lay down a strong challenge in the race for the championship.
"We feel that we have some unfinished business", said Faulkner, who hails from Cumbria. "The car will be exactly the same.
"We just need to find a way to drive it faster if we are going to challenge for the championship.
"The weather on the Snowman can always be a bit of a lottery, but we’re hoping for fast hard tracks for maximum attack."
It is an all-Inverness duo who are seeded fourth with driver Donnie Macdonald and Andrew Falconer competing in a Mitsubishi Evo 9.
They had a solid campaign in 2011, finishing fifth in the points, and will be targeting another strong finish on his home event following a sixth place last year.
Next up is the Evo 9 of Barry Groundwater, from Stonehaven, co-driven by Daniel Paterson, while 2009 Snowman winners Reay Mackay and Robert MacDonald, both of Fort Augustus, start sixth in a Subaru Impreza WRC.
Tyne and Wear crew Michael Glendinning and Paul Hughes won last month’s Grant Construction Stages Rally at Knockhill in a brand new Subaru Impreza N15 and will be hoping to replicate their good form on gravel.
The Aberdeenshire duo of Chris Collie and Lisa Watson emerged as one of the most improved crews of 2011 and hey will want to pick up where they left off in the Subaru Impreza in which they secured four successive top 10 placings in the second half of last season.
Calum Mackenzie, of Inverurie, is back in action in his Mitsubishi Evo 8 alongside navigator Alan Clark and they are ninth seeds having previously powering to an eighth-place finish in the ice and mud in 2011.
The top ten is rounded off by Conon Bridge driver John Morrison and navigator Peter Carstairs, from St Andrews, who have finished twelfth or better on the Snowman on four occasions in the past five years.
There will also be a good deal of home support for Inverness crew Dougal Brown and Lewis Rochford in a Mitsubishi Evo 9.
They are making a welcome return to competition after a serious accident on the penultimate round of the Scottish championship last year that resulted in Rochford being airlifted to hospital.
Further details and a full seeded entry list can be found at www.snowmanrally.co.uk.
