While Ireland’s Keith Cronin won the opening round of the British Rally Championship (BRC) in Wales, the happiest man was Scots youngster David Bogie. The 21-year-old, making his BRC debut, bagged a top-five finish.
“It’s a terrific result considering this is the first time I’ve driven my new Mitsubishi Evo X in a rally,” the talented young Scot said today after finishing the final stage of the Bulldog International Rally of North Wales.
“What’s encouraging is we already know there’s a lot more to come from the car, especially in terms of engine power. It was always unfair to expect it to be 100% straight out of the box, but to be fast enough for fifth is excellent.
“I’d have been even faster if I hadn’t stalled at the start of stage four, the 16-miler at Big Ray, but we were having a few problems with the gears which we thankfully managed to sort at the last service before the final two stages.”
Bogie — who dominated last year’s British Mitsubishi Championship — was consistently fifth-quickest throughout the day’s six stages, eventually finishing just 20.7secs behind the Subaru Impreza of fourth-placed Adam Gould from Bristol.
The Dumfries youngster also won his private duel with fellow Scot Dave Weston jnr. The 19-year-old from Aberdeen finished sixth in his Impreza, 7.1s adrift of Bogie.
Cronin meanwhile, who had trailed three-times British champ Mark Higgins’ Impreza all day, took advantage of a slip by the Manxman on the final stage to finish the event in 1hr 20mins 59.7secs and win by 9.0s. Welshpool’s Stuart Jones was third in a Mitsubishi Evo IX.
“I felt as long as I could keep applying pressure to Mark something might work in my favour,” Bantry-based Cronin, who started the final 16-miler trailing by 3.0s, said. “Fortunately on this occasion it worked in my favour.”
JM