Bogie triumphs after heartbreak for Ahlin at the Scottish Rally

CA1 Sport’s boss Martin Wilkinson was both upbeat and downbeat after the Scottish round of the British Rally Championship, held in the mid-Scotland forest on Friday and Saturday, 19th and 20th May.

“We were having a great day, until 2 miles from the end of the tenth and final stage” he said on Monday morning. “It had been a fantastic day-long, ding-dong battle between our two leading crews right from the start, and we were 1-2 going into the last stage, but that loose stone on the track that popped up and punctured Fredrik’s radiator just 2 miles from the end was just unfortunate.”

The rally had had a ceremonial start in Lockerbie before the 97 crews headed out to the first loop of four stages. Fastest off the start line was the Hyundai i20 RS mounted crew of Tom Cave and James Morgan, hotly pursued over the 8.7 miles of the Mount Joe stage by the CA1 Sport entered pairing of Fredrik Ahlin and Torstein Erikson in their striking black-and-gold liveried Skoda Fabia R5. After two runs over this stage, just 9.9 seconds separated these two crews, with David Bogie and Kevin Rae, in the second of the two CA1 Sport cars, the Ford Fiesta R5, another ten seconds adrift.

Bogie said “That first stage was really rough, so I took it steady as I didn’t want to puncture. But I underestimated exactly how fast Fredrik and Tom Cave would be, so I was playing catch-up for most of the day.

But Cave/Morgan were cruelly sidelined on Stage 3 Twiglees, when a wheel was wrenched off the Hyundai, meaning instant early bath for the duo. The Bogie/Rae duo were well fired up after dropping 20 seconds to the leader on that first rough stage and they proceeded to set a string of devastatingly quick times –only team mates Ahlin /Erikson could get anywhere near them. Ahlin took over the lead from Cave on stage 3, and drove faultlessly to keep it until stage 6 Ae 1; but Bogie and Rae relentlessly closed the gap, until by the end of stage 6 the pair were separated by just 4 seconds.

On stage 7, Bogie edged ahead by 1 second, but Ahlin retook the lead on stage 8 by 1.4 seconds. Then on stage 9 the timing really could NOT have been closer when Bogie put in a superlative effort on Windy Hill to lead the event again by the smallest possible margin of 0.1 second from Ahlin.

The tenth and final stage – a rerun of the 8.11 miles through Ae forest – was the setting for the showdown between the two CA1 crews. At this point, the third placed crew of Osian Pryce/Dale Furniss in their Ford fiesta were 57 seconds adrift of the lead, with fourth placed Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin (Ford Fiesta) over a minute behind.

Both Bogie and Ahlin opted for the sensible approach here – fast, but not too wild; controlled, but not pedestrian; keep it on the island, tyres down roof up – and the plan worked. But only for the first six miles.

A scant two miles before the finish line, Ahlin’s Fabia (which had been first into the stage because of the Schedule Timing system) hopped over a stone, popped it up and spearing the radiator, and Ahlin’s rally ended in the worst possible way.

Meanwhile, Bogie and Rae ended the last stage having set the third fastest time and thus doing enough to clinch the win. Afterwards, a delighted Bogie said “That was a hard battle all day, after I had a bit of a steady start on the rough stage 1. I was playing catch up to Fredrik right up to stage 7, and even then he kept up relentless pressure on every stage. But I’m pleased with how I drove today, and delighted with this win. I’m looking forward to the next round, the Ypres rally in Belgium, as it’s an event I’ve not tackled before. It’s a tarmac event, so we’ll do a day’s testing beforehand to make sure the setup is right.”

Team boss Martin Wilkinson summed up the weekend; “I really feel for both crews. They had a fantastic ding-dong all day, and Fredrik had such bad luck. But David and Kevin fought tremendously hard after a cautious start, and thoroughly deserved their win.”

The third CA1 Sport crew of Jamie Anderson/ Ross Whitock in their Ford Fiest R5 were placed seventh overall after a relatively trouble free run over the ten stages. These top ten finishers also meant delight for Martin and his CA1 team as well, because they maintained their lead in the BRC Teams Cup, ahead of the Ford works team M Sport in the process.