BORDER reivers Michael Binnie and Claire Mole secured a second consecutive Snowman Rally victory last weekend.The Mitsubishi Evo 9 Cornhill/Duns pairing won the opening round of the Scottish Rally Championship (SRC) by 19 seconds at the finish.But their successful raid in the north of Scotland came at the end of what was, as predicted, a hotly contested event involving more than 80 crews.The duo had battled all day with the Ford Fiesta R5 of Freddie Milne and Patrick Walsh and led by just five seconds going into the final stage of the Black Isle-based rally.But Milne and Walsh were robbed of a podium finish when their engine cut out with just two miles to go, and the time lost on restarting the engine cruelly dropped them to fourth overall.That allowed Jock Armstrong and Cammy Fair to secure a fine second place in their famous orange Subaru Impreza after overcoming brake problems in the morning.Salvaging third overall, five-time champions David Bogie and Kevin Rae suffered a puncture and suspension failure in stage one.
But a typical charge in the afternoon saw the MINI WRC climb back up on to the podium.The Mitsubishi Evo 9 crew of Scott Macbeth and Daniel Forsyth rounded out the top five.Making their 4WD debut, locals Keir Beaton and Iain Thorburn finished ninth, despite a few excursions into ditches, to take top spot in the Challengers category in their hired Impreza.Claiming the 2WD category victory was the rapid Peugeot 208 R4 crew of Peter Stewart and Harry Marchbank, who finished 15th and challenged the 4WD cars all day.Also making their 4WD debut were local Impreza pairing Jordan Anderson and Claire Mackenzie, who dominated the Subaru Cup battle by more than two minutes, ending up in 21st place.In the Junior
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