Bogie gunning for Scots hat-trickposted in SRC18 | 02 | 2011

    DOUBLE SCOTTISH rally champ David Bogie, begins the defence of his Scottish Rally Championship tomorrow in the traditional season opener, the Inverness-based Snowman Rally.

    The 23-year-old from Dumfries, winner of back-to-back titles, will again drive his trusty Mitsubishi Evo IX in the 44-mile event which forecasters predict could well be run in snow.

    "It would be fantastic to win three Scottish tiitles in a row, because it's only been done once before," Bogie admitted today. "The car has been fully repaired by Pro-Tec Motorsport over the winter months. The engine has been rebuilt, the transmission has been rebuilt, and it's just generally been tightened up. It's looking really good."

    Bogie got rid of the post-winter rustiness by testing at Sweet Lamb in Wales earlier this week. It was his first run in the car since last October's IRC Rally Scotland,

    when he and Hawick co-driver Kevin Rae finished fourth overall.

    But the young Scot will not have it all his own way in today's event, which will be contested by more than 100 crews in the forest stages north of the Highland capital.

    While last year's Snowman winner, Jock Armstrong from Castle Douglas, returns to defend his win in his Subaru Impreza, Mike Faulkner from Kirtlebridge is another fancied competitor in his Mitsubishi Evo VI.

    "As ever you start the season with only one aim and certainly everything we've done over the winter has been about how we can win the championship," Faulkner, whose 2010 season was dogged by mechanical woes and resulted in him finishing fourth, said.

    "We've stripped the car right back and rebuilt it, gone through everything with a fine toothcomb, hopefully to get the reliability as well as the speed."

    But much of the attention will be focused on the return to competitive action of Bothwell's Robbie Head. The former Renault works driver, who narrowly missed out on the British championship, will swap his TV microphone for a Mitsubishi Evo IX.

    "It's going to be great to get back into the think of things in a rally car," Head, who now works as a TV pundit on the British Rally Championship, admitted. "I think it might take a few miles to blow the cobwebs away, but I'm up for the challenge."

    The Cumbrian crew of Paul Benn and Richard Cooke return to action in their Ford Focus WRC 01 as fourth seeds, ahead of the Evo 9 of leading Borders driver Euan Thorburn, who will be paired with Invernessian Paul Keaton.

    In 2009, Reay Mackay notched up a  famous Snowman victory in an MG Metro 6R4, alongside fellow Fort Augustus competitor Robert MacDonald. This time out the pair will contest their home event in a Subaru Impreza WRC, the car in which Mackay won the final round of last year's Scottish Tarmac Championship.

    Hotly-tipped young driver David Wilson from Alness was pushing for podium places throughout last season – taking a well-deserved third place on the RSAC Scottish. He resumes his SRC challenge with leading navigator Dave Robson from Jedburgh.

    There will, of course, be a time for reflection at the event as competitors, officials

    and spectators remember Jimmy Girvan, who lost his life on the McRae Stages last September.

    The "course car" will be the distinctive Subaru Impreza in which the popular Invernessian and Highland Car Club stalwart won the second of his two Scottish crowns in 2008.

    Keep up-to-date with all the latest news by following us on twitter.com/scotcars

    Jim McGill

    Photo: LindsayPhotoSport

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