MacDonald finishes sixth at Granite City Rally
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THREE Highland drivers finished in the top 10 at the Coltel Granite City Rally, which was once again won by defending champion David Bogie — his third victory on the Aberdeen-based event in the past four years.
The Dumfries driver led from start to finish to complete the five stages in a total time of 42 minutes 25 seconds, nearly one and-a-half minutes ahead of runner-up Chris Collie, from Aberdeen. Third-placed Mike Faulkner was just a further second adrift. The result means that Bogie, co-driven by Kevin Rae, now leads the ARR Craib MSA Scottish Rally Championship by one point from Banchory’s Quintin Milne, who finished fourth.
An early casualty was Euan Thorburn and his Inverness co-driver Paul Beaton — one of Bogie’s main rivals — who hit a rock on the first stage which flattened the exhaust of his Focus WRC.
There was better news for Donnie MacDonald and Andrew Falconer, both from Inverness, as they made it to the finish line in sixth place, but it is a rally neither will look back on fondly.
"It was a day of two halves," said MacDonald. "The morning stages went well for us, but we had a really bad afternoon, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow, to be honest.
"It started to go wrong on the third stage. The steering wheel slipped out of my hands a few times, so I took my gloves off, and it was OK.
Then we span again and I put on a new pair of gloves, but they were no use. I think it’s a problem with the steering wheel — it might need roughing up a bit.
"We’ve been in ditches, we’ve stopped, we’ve stalled. It’s been a bit of a nightmare."
Reay Mackay, from Fort Augustus, who had Stuart Louden co-driving, was happy to get a clean run and finish a rally for the "first time in two years" at the wheel of his Subaru Impreza WRC.
Granite City winners from 2007, Andy Horne (Inverness) and navigator Jim Howie (Kilmarnock) came home in ninth place in their DAM 4100gti, while further down the field another city duo Dougal Brown and Lewis Roachford finished 17th.
Meanwhile, Aboyne’s Stewart Davidson and Inverness co-driver Breagha Dobney were class five victors in a Ford Escort Mk2, while Steven Smith, of East Kilbride, with Daniel Johnstone (Inverness) on the notes, made sure of class seven.
The next round of the Scottish Rally Championship is the Jim Clark Reivers Rally in Duns on Sunday 2nd June.
Coltel Granite City Rally — top ten finishers with total times:
1 David Bogie/Kevin Rae, 42 minutes, 25 seconds; 2 Chris Collie/Lisa Watson, 43.49; 3 Mike Faulkner/Peter Foy, 43.50; 4 Quintin Milne/Martin Forrest, 43.53; 5 Barry Groundwater/Neil Shanks, 44.07; 6 Donnie MacDonald/Andrew Falconer, 44.20; 7 Reay Mackay/Stuart Louden, 44.53; 8 Alistair Inglis/Colin Inglis, 45.01; Andy Horne/Jim Howie, 45.06; 10 Mark McCulloch/Elliot Edmondson, 45.25.
