While Craig McMiken secured a top twenty finish, and Port William's Fraser Wilson and Steven Broll took a well deserved class win, Mark McCulloch had a day to forget when his car went off the road into deep undergrowth.

McMiken and co-driver Christine Sanderson had sat out the previous Jim Clark Reivers tarmac round and were keen to get back into action on the classic gravel stages of the "Scottish".

In the event, they returned to the finish ramp in Dumfries town centre in 16th overall in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.

"We had a slow start – in fact the first three stages were pretty poor", said McMiken: "But the last two in Ae were brilliant. I fair enjoyed that last stage, it made up for the whole day!"

In the 2-wheel drive category, Wilson and Broll had gone into the event with a newly acquired engine after a failure on the Jim Clark Reivers.

The pair were on the pace from the off – taking the overall lead in Class 2 on the first Kinharvie stage.

They dropped some time thereafter and were second in class going into the penultimate stage Ae West where they leap-frogged rival Craig Rutherford and kept their noses in front over the final – and at 12-miles – longest test, Ae East to take the class win.

In contrast, team-mates McCulloch and navigator Craig Wallace never got beyond the first stage in their Class 4 Vauxhall Corsa – which had also had an engine rebuild after it blew on the Reivers.

There were problems too on the eve of the event, when the clutch on the car failed during the media shakedown – leading to hasty repairs before official scrutineering that evening.




The outright winners of the "Scottish" were Kirtlebridge-based Mike Faulkner and co-driver Peter Foy – the pair securing their second SRC victory following a maiden championship win on the Granite City in April.

Faulkner powered his Mitsubishi Evo 6 through the classic Dumfries and Galloway
stages to finish 13 seconds ahead of rest of the field.

Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Riddick of Castle Douglas secured the final SRC podium spot in their Impreza N11 and extended their championship lead.

In the drivers' standings, Armstrong now has 131 points, with Faulkner second on 103. There is a similar margin between Riddick and Foy in the co-drivers' championship.

David Bogie of Dumfries remains third in the drivers' table on 101 points, despite crashing out in his Evo 9 on the fourth stage, after "wheel sensor" problems had affected the handling of the car earlier in the day.

Faulkner and Foy set a blistering pace from the start and were fastest through SS1
Kinharvie by two seconds from Oban's Willie Bonniwell.

They still had their noses in front after the short Heathhall spectator stage, but only by one second from a hard-charging Bonniwell.

However, on the 6-mile Castle O'er stage, Bonniwell picked up a puncture, and Faulkner lost around 20 seconds when he got caught behind the slower car.

The Evo 6 crew quickly regrouped. They were fastest through stages four and five, but were only one second ahead of reigning champion Jimmy Girvan going into the final – and longest test of the day – the 12.75 mile Ae East.

Then disaster struck for the Inverness man when he rolled his Subaru, ensuring Faulkner a famous victory after notching up his fourth fastest stage time of the event.

Faulkner was both delighted – and relieved – at the outcome:

"We had a real low in the middle of the day when we lost all that time stuck behind Willie, "said the Kirtlebridge-based driver: " We went into the stage with five seconds covering the top six and we came out absolutely gutted thinking it was all over. But we just drove our hearts out, and it came together. Our championship campaign is certainly up and running".

Armstrong and Riddick watched the drama unfold around them, as they steered a steady course towards the final SRC podium spot – including a second-equal fastest time on the 6 mile Castle O'er stage.

Their "moment" came in Ae when Armstrong thought a corner was a lot faster than it was and the car "ended up parked against a tree", losing the pair a few seconds.

Said Armstrong: "All in all, it's been a very good day and it's nice to be on the podium again. The times have been very tight - it's the turn of the season now where people are looking at collecting as many points as possible, and we've achieved that today, so I'm happy".

One of the "drives of the day" went to Dumfries-born Steven Clark on what was his first SRC event of the year behind the wheel of his venerable Mitsubishi Evo 4.

With sister Alison from Lockerbie occuping the co-driver's seat, Clark wrung every ounce of horsepower out of the car which he steered to GpN honours in 2008, finishing sixth overall, and fourth in the points.



"It's been very good – we were second quickest on the first of the Ae stages, and I'm very happy with that. Mike Faulkner was obviously on a charge to take the victory and we were only five seconds down so I think in this old bus that's quite good", said Clark.

The Dumfries crew of Davie Hughes and Bruce Harper ended the day eleventh overall in their Mitsubishi Evo 9.

Said Hughes: "It's been good. We were slow on the first stage, that's the only thing, otherwise, we might have had a better result, but it's decent enough, and we came through the spectator stage at Heathhall in a minute dead, which was good".

It was a more problematical event for farmer Rory Young from Kirkgunzeon, and co-driver Allan Cathers of Carlisle – the pair finishing 29th overall, five minutes adrift of first-placed Faulkner.

"It's been a difficult day for us after a reasonable start," said Young, adding: "We got caught out a wee bit with the surface changes and then we got two punctures on both the Ae stages so that put us back quite a bit. We got a puncture half a mile into the Ae West stage so we had to stop and then pulled out behind someone's dust so lost about 3 and a half minutes".

For Dumfries driver Ian Paterson, the rally took on extra significance. At 1am on the eve of the event, his wife Claire gave birth to their first child: son William weighing in at 7lb 4 oz.

The baby had been due on June 12th and as the days passed Ian saw his chances of competing dwindle. However, as he left the hospital after the successful birth at 5am on Friday , his wife told him: "Go and phone Clerk of the Course, Jonathan Lord, and tell him you're doing the rally!". Said Ian: "I'm absolutely chuffed to bits – a new son AND I get to compete on my home event. Fantastic!"

And for the record, Ian finished a very creditable 17th overall at the wheel of his Subaru Impreza N10.

Full results can be found at www.flyingfinish.co.uk

The sixth round of the Hankook MSA Scottish Rally Championship is the Gleaner Oil & Gas Speyside Stages in Elgin on 8th August.

For news of all SRC rounds go to www.scottishrallychampionship.co.uk