Thorburn denies Bogie titleposted in RSCOT07 | 09 | 2013

DUNS DRIVER EUAN THORBURN (pictured) won the Merrick Stages Rally to maintain his hopes of denying rival David Bogie a fifth successive Scottish Rally Championship.

Thorburn, driving his Ford Focus WRC, eventually finished 44-seconds ahead of the 26-year-old from Dumfries who had a day to forget.

Bogie, also piloting a Focus WRC, started the Wigtown-based event knowing victory would seal his fifth title. But a spin on the first stage and a puncture on the last put paid to that.

"I'm a bit disappointed to be honest," Bogie said today. "We were hoping for a to wrap up the championship, but we got off to a bad start with a spin on the first stage which cost us around 20 seconds."

By the time they entered the day's final stage, the 14-miler at Glentrool, the difference was back to 12s.

But as Bogie pushed to overhaul the gap, and pushing hard, his car suffered a puncture before another spin ripped the front bumper off the Focus.

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"That's what happens sometimes'" he smiled. "You just throw caution to the wind to try and close the gap, you get a puncture and that's it, over.

"Still, we head to the next round, the McRae Stages in Perth next month — an event I really love — knowing another win will seal the title."

Thorburn, meanwhile, was pleased to grab the victory and extend his hopes of winning the championship.

"I'm delighted with the win, and the aim is to keep the championship away from David as long as we can," Thorburn said.

"The last stage was a bit of a struggle, it was really wet and we thought we'd lost a lot of time. We couldn't see, the windscreen misted up.

"but we got to the end of the stage, won the rally and maintained our hopes of winning the championship. Now it's all down to the McRae."

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Jim McGill