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21.7.2008 | 10:43

Swansea bay rallið - 5 umferð EVO meistarakeppninnar. Bogie vinnur með 3,2sek

Swansea Bay Rally – 19th July 2008
David Bogie scores third Evo Challenge win and leads championship with two rounds to go.
Second-placed Richard Cathcart takes the fight to the finish.
Neil McCance shakes off his Swansea demons to claim third.
South-Wales event shakes up the race for the Mitsubishi series title.

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21st July 2008

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For the third time this season David Bogie and co-driver Kevin Rae sprayed the champagne, when they crossed the finish line of round five of the 2008 Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge, the Swansea Bay Rally – which took place on 19th July. They took the lead on stage four and had to battle right to the end, as second-placed Richard Cathcart/Martin Brady fought back in the closing stages.

The event started and finished from SA1, Swansea’s rapidly developing dock-side area and featured six-timed special stages in forests which are usually used by the Wales Rally GB. The three loops of two stages were separated by two service halts, providing the nine Evolution Challenge competitors - a figure that represented 25% of the National event’s entry - with a competitive distance of 64 miles.

With just one-point separating the top four drivers in the series standings, this event was acknowledged to be a potential turning point for championship positions and, leading up to the rally, there was eager anticipation that a battle royal was about to unfold.

Fastest out of the blocks was round-two winner Cathcart, who stopped the first-stage clock one-second ahead of Keith Cronin, who was in-turn one second ahead of Daniel Barry, who also was one second ahead of Bogie – the Evolution Challenge living up to it’s reputation of being the most closely-fought rally championship in the UK.

In stage two the damp conditions made grip levels unpredictable - not just on the stages, but also on Cathcart’s boots – his foot slipping off the brake pedal and causing him to overshoot the first corner. Also caught out by the conditions was Barry, who also had a time-delaying overshoot. But there were no such issues for Cronin, who shot into the Evo Challenge lead by setting the fastest time by 4.4 seconds.

At the first service halt the time sheets showed Cronin leading from Bogie in second, Cathcart third, Nik Elsmore fourth and Barry now fifth, just ahead of Neil McCance who was aiming to lay the spectre of his previous Swansea Bay non-finishes to rest.

Jonathan Sparks was perhaps the unluckiest of the Evo Challenge runners, when a turbo pipe came loose just a few 100 yards into the first stage, forcing him to stop and investigate. With the help of his co-driver’s bootlaces he was able to fix the problem and get back to the service halt, albeit with over ten minutes lost.

With a delay in proceedings due to a problem in stage three when the earlier Clubmans Rally ran through Rhondda Forest, there was an agonising wait of over an hour before the action recommenced. Barry went faster through SS3 than all other Evo runners by 1.1 seconds, but it all went wrong for the former championship leader in SS4 when he had to avoid an un-seen pile of logs on the inside of a corner, the consequent evasive action causing his Lancer to slam into a pile of logs on the outside of the bend. Thankfully, he and co-driver Mark Bowens were unhurt, but the same could be not be said for their car.

Stage four was also the end of the line for Cronin, who went wide exiting a hairpin, his Evo slipped into a ditch and, although there was no damage they were stuck fast and unable to extract the car from its muddy predicament. In contrast, Elsmore was lucky to get out of the stage when a faulty throttle sensor caused his car’s engine to cut out with just a few 100 yards to go. He was therefore fortunate enough to be able to rely on gravity, due to a long downhill section to the finish line.

At the second service halt results showed Bogie leading by 7.4 seconds ahead of Cathcart, who was reported that his car was handling strangely and was down on power due to a squashed intercooler pipe. McCance was now up to third, with Elsmore relieved to still be in the hunt and holding fourth place.

With his car restored to full mechanical health, Cathcart proceeded to claw back 4.1 seconds on Bogie in SS5, which meant that as they started the last stage, there was just 2.3 seconds between them.

After a flat-out charge on the sixth and final stage, Bogie posted a time 0.9 seconds faster than Cathcart and, in doing so, clinched his third Evo Challenge victory of the season by a margin of 3.2 seconds. McCance was delighted to make it back to Swansea and claim a place on the podium, while Elsmore was happy with fourth, considering the problems he had encountered earlier.

Fifth went to Miles Johnstone, who had kept out of trouble all day and hardly put a foot wrong, whilst sixth-placed Tom Naughton was over the moon, having enjoyed a trouble-free run with his re-built car. Having had to contend with a puncture on stage six following his first stage delay, Sparks was also pleased to get to the finish and claim seventh place in the process.

“With the championship so close, this was very important to have a good result on this event”, said Bogie. “I had to drive absolutely flat out on the last stage to make sure I stayed in the lead, so I’m delighted to take my third Evo Challenge victory of the season and to be leading the championship.”

Bogie now tops the Evolution Challenge tables by one point from Cathcart with two rounds left to go, the sixth and penultimate event taking place on 22nd & 23rd August, with a switch to asphalt stages and a trip to Northern Ireland for the Ulster International Rally.

The 2008 Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge is backed by Mitsubishi Motors UK and Ralliart, with support from its associate sponsors: Pirelli tyres, Speedline Corse wheels, Sparco racewear, Performance Friction Brakes, Sunoco Race Fuels, ADR Motorsport, Walkinshaw Performance and PIAA lights, who sponsor the junior award for under 25 year old drivers.

Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge Round Five
Swansea Bay Rally – 19th July 2008
Results
1 David Bogie (Dumfries)/Kevin Rae (Hawick) 1:01:44.8
2 Richard Cathcart (Enniskillen)/Martin Brady (Navan) 1:01:48.0
3 Neil McCance (Comber)/Graham Hopewell (Worcester) A 1:03:05.9
4 Nik Elsmore (Coleford)/Craig Drew (Bream) 1:04:31.6
5 Miles Johnston (York)/Ian Bevan (Holywell) 1:05:46.3
6 Thomas Naughton (Bury)/Horace Saville (Bury) 1:13:12.6
7 Jonathan Sparks (Glastonbury)/Chris Davies (Abergavenny) 1:21:42.0