Bogie bowled over by Snowman winposted in SRC19 | 02 | 2011

SCOTS RALLY ACE David Bogie began his bid for a third successive Scottish Rally Championship title by dominating today's opening round, the Inverness-based Snowman Rally.

The 23-year-old from Dumfries, who lifted the championship in 2009 and '10, powered his Mitsubishi Evo IX to a comfortable 30sec victory ahead of another Evo IX piloted by Euan Thorburn from Duns.

Last year's Snowman winner, Castle Douglas's Jock Armstrong, was third in his Subaru Impreza, a further three second adrift.

"This is a fantastic start to the season," Bogie, who was fastest through three of the five stages which wound their way through the highland forests north of Inverness, said after covering the 44 stage miles in 42mins 50secs.

"This is the first time I've won the Snowman Rally; it's one of the only two events in the championship I'd never won, so now the only remaining one is the Border Counties. I really wanted to win here this weekend, but Euan made me work hard for it."

Bogie led by five seconds after the opening 11-mile stage at Strathrory, but Thorburn pegged the defending champ back and they entered the penultimate stage, the nine-miler at Dalchork level.

"I knew then I had to really push through that stage to re-establish my advantage, and that's exactly what we did," Bogie, again co-driven by Hawick's Kevin Rae, admitted.

"Then we pushed a bit through the final eight-miler at Morangie and came out fastest again. I'm seriously chuffed to have won the Snowman, and now we can turn our attention to the British Championship."

Bogie, who finished fourth in last October's RallyScotland, the penultimate round of the Intercontinental Rally Championship, heads south to tackle the opening round of the British Rally Championship in Bournemouth next weekend.

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Jim McGill

Photo: LindsayPhotoSport