THIRD SPOT FOR RALLY DUO – HELPED BY HOLY SOCKS AND ROCK BUNS!

Jock Armstrong and co-driver Kirsty Riddick took the final podium spot on the
Station Garage Mitsubishi Granite City Rally – a result which hoisted Jock
to the top of the provisional drivers' points in the Hankook MSA Scottish
Rally Championship.

The Earsman backed, “Holy Socks” supported driver also heads the Group N category
for showroom-specification cars.

It was Jock's first attempt at the Granite, and the second rally which he and
Kirsty had contested in their newly-built Subaru Impreza N11.

Jock had only had a short test run in the car following some “fine-tuning” since
the previous Border Counties round.

After an eighth-fastest time through the short first Durris 1 stage, the Stewartry
duo got into their stride and were fourth quickest through SS2 Fetteresso 1
and again through SS3 Glenfarquhar, just one second adrift of eventual rally
winners Mike Faulkner from Kirtlebridge and West Yorkshire co-driver Peter Foy.

By the service stop at Strathcathro, Jock and Kirsty were lying fourth overall –
32 seconds behind leader David Bogie in his Mitsubishi Evo 9, with the Subaru
Impreza of Borderer Euan Thorburn second, and Mike Faulkner in his Evo 6 lying third.

Jock and his “team manager” Malcolm Proudlock decided to put on a new set of Hankook
tyres before venturing out onto the afternoon stages – and Jock took on “extra fuel”
by dipping into a large bag of rock buns prepared by Kirsty's mum.

After the break, Jock and Kirsty were sixth fastest through the Drumtochty stage,
eight seconds adrift of quickest man Jimmy Girvan, but stayed fourth overall.

Onto the penultimate Fetteresso 2 stage, and the “Holy Socks” crew were fifth
fastest behind Faulkner, Girvan, Bogie and Stonehaven's Barry Groundwater
in an Evo 9. Thorburn, meanwhile, had dropped out of the running with an electrical fault.

The event took a dramatic twist on the last stage - the short Durris 2 test –
when David Bogie, who'd built up a 5 second lead over Faulkner, slid into a
ditch at slow speed at a tight hairpin, and lost more than 3 minutes while spectators
helped to get the car back on the road.

It meant that Jock and Kirsty returned to the finish at the Alten's Thistle Hotel
in Aberdeen in third place overall, 53 seconds behind winners Faulkner and Foy,
and 9 seconds behind second-placed Groundwater and navigator Jude Wylie.

After the traditional champagne spraying in front of the waiting cameras,
Jock reflected: “It was a bit strange, being my first time on the Granite
and not knowing the layout of the stages, so to finish third is very satisfying”.

The “Holy Socks” team will now prepare for the Jim Clark Reivers' Rally on Sunday 24th May.
The rally – based at Duns in Berwickshire - takes place on closed public roads
and is the only tarmac event of the eight round Hankook Scottish Championship.