August 2nd, 2013
Speyside Stages. SRC.
This year’s Speyside Stages attracted 103 entries and among them were five SOSCC crews.
At two were David Bogie and Kevin Rae in the Cagemax Focus with something to prove, having been caught napping on June’s Scottish Rally by Borderer, Euan Thorburn. To cut a long story short, our pair proved that they are indeed rightful four-time Scottish Rally Champions, by controlling the Speyside from start to finish, winning almost every one of the nine stages and eventually finishing with a seventeen second gap back to Thorburn. This result slightly increases their SRC title lead with three rounds remaining and as each rally passes, they are getting more and more out of the Focus.
Ian Paterson and Jim Haugh were at 31 in the Gulf sponsored Scooby but were less fortunate, as they made an early exit with a burst turbo intercoller pipe.
James Robertson and Colin Maxwell ran at 50 in the C2R2 and finished 43rd overall and 4th in class, despite a throttle sensor fault on stage two that cost them a bit of time and very dusty conditions that hindereed visibility.
Chuck Blair tells me he and Mark Roberts ran with number 77 on the 205 GTi’s doors but ran 65th on the road after they appealed their seeding. They had an eventful day, first catching a car on stage two which lost them a load of time and then spun trying to make up time. On SS6 they squashed the exhaust and the car was well down on power as a result so having sorted that, they pushed hard on stage seven setting a great time and then had a massive off road moment with a spin, a near roll and a stall. So they decided to back off for the rest of the rally with the car getting worse. They ended up 2nd in the 205 challenge, 3rd in class and judged themselves to have had a good day with plenty class points on board. The Merrick is their next target.
Scott Sloan and dad, David, were at 96 in the Corsa also had a day filled with incidents, starting with a puncture in the morning then catching the car in front, twice !. After service they set off but ‘someone’ had forgotten to replace the oil cap. With a bit of quick thinking and ingenuity, they made a new cap out of a rubber glove, a badge off a 206 and some tie wraps. They then slid off the road on the next stage but nevertheless, still managed 52nd overall and 3rd in class. Scott sums it all up by saying they had great fun and loved their day’s rallying.
Here are Frank Love’s excellent images:
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