David Bogie and co-driver Kevin Rae recorded their second Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge victory of the season on this weekend's Severn Valley National Rally. They took the lead on stage three when former front-runners Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors lost time, relegating them to third, whilst Richard Cathcart/Martin Brady finished second.

The rally started and finished at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells and featured seven timed special stages in forests on and around the Brecon Beacons. Also a qualifying round of the Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship, the event's 40-car entry featured 10 Evolution Challenge crews and, once again, it was a nail-biting battle for honours in the one-make series for production specification Mitsubishi Lancers.

Stage one, a 5.57-mile blast through the notorious Esgair Dafydd forest, set the scene for the rest of the day and showed just how fierce the competition is in this year's Evolution Challenge, when five cars stopped the clock on exactly the same second: Richard Cathcart, David Bogie, Daniel Barry, Neil McCance and Jonny Greer. However, it was Cronin that set the Mitsubishi pace by crossing the line five seconds quicker than anyone else, posting a time that was good enough to see him second overall!

It was McCance that went fastest on SS2 - the 9.5-miles of Crychan West - ahead of Cronin, which meant that at the first service halt the time sheets showed Cronin in front by three seconds from McCance, both saying they were finding it difficult to judge the right pace. Cathcart followed a further three seconds later and admitted that he was not feeling on top of things, with Bogie the same margin behind having decided to build up his pace gradually after his disappointing results in rounds two and three.

Shaken, but fortunately unscathed, Barry, Greer and Jonathan Sparks all reported heart-stopping visits to ditches in SS2, whilst Daniel Sigurdarson was just pleased to be competing, having spent the last three weeks in the UK, rather than his native Iceland, in order to rebuild his car after a big accident on the RBSI Manx Rally.

The most frustrating start was reserved for Miles Johnston, a problem with his car's rear differential, followed by a broken drive-shaft, causing him considerable time loss in the opening stages.

The third stage was to prove to be decisive: Not far from the start Cronin spun backwards into the scenery, squashing his car's exhaust pipe, which resulted in a loss of power throughout the 18-mile run through Radnor Forest. However, things were worse for McCance, who dropped his car into a ditch half way through the stage, bringing his rally to an abrupt halt.

In contrast, SS3 could not have gone better for Bogie who posted a time 14 seconds faster than the rest of the Evo Challenge field and catapulted himself into the lead by 10 seconds, ahead of Cathcart, Barry and Cronin - who had now dropped to fourth.

Four stages and a further 33 miles remained following the second service halt of the day. Now on a charge, Cronin won the first, which moved him back up to second place ahead of Barry and Cathcart, the three of them separated by less than one second!

Cronin also went on to win the next two, so that when cars lined-up to start the seventh and final stage, there was just four seconds between him and Bogie. Cathcart followed eight seconds later, a slender 0.1 second ahead of Barry who was getting worried about his car's engine temperature. It was shaping up to be a final stage show-down!

In full-attack mode, Bogie blasted through the 15 miles of Crychan Main only to find his car's temperature starting to rise as he reached the end of the stage. For Cronin it was his last hope to take the lead, but it was not to be, as his engine lost power, most likely a result of the restricted exhaust flow earlier in the day.
Now struggling to keep his temperature gauge out of the red, Barry slid off the road and damaged his Lancer too badly to continue, the outcome of which saw Cathcart come through to claim second place ahead of Cronin.

The final stage also saw the demise of Greer, good luck continuing to evade him when his car's throttle stuck open. Stopping to see if he could fix the problem, he finally managed to get the engine to rev at constant and more manageable 3000rpm, but by the time he got to the end of SS7, he found he had exceeded his maximum lateness.

But even after the last stage the drama continued, as reports came in that Bogie's car was seen stopped at the side of the road with steam coming out of the engine. However, by topping up the radiator the young Scot was able to nurse his car back to Builth Wells to record his second Evolution Challenge victory of the season.

"What a rally!" said Bogie. "After winning the first round and then suffering disappointing results in rounds two and three, I'm chuffed to bits to finish in first place again. However, for a moment I didn't think I was going to do it when the car overheated on the drive back to the finish. But we made it and today's result has made all the difference to my championship hopes."

Behind the leading trio, Elsmore was satisfied with fourth place, as was Sparks with fifth, whereas Johnston's day got even more frustrating when he found he had to stop to change a puncture on the final stage.

Unfortunately, after all of his and his team's hard work, Sigurdarson's rally came to an end after stage five, when the cross-shaft in his car's transmission fractured. Philosophically, the Icelandic Rally Champion said afterwards that he had achieved the result he was looking for by getting his car to the event and not putting any dents in it this time around!

The outcome of the Severn Valley National Rally sees the chase for the Evolution Challenge title hotting up, with the top four drivers separated by just one point, Barry and Cathcart on 28 and Bogie and Elsmore on 27. The battle resumes on 19th July, when competitors return to Wales for round five, the Swansea Bay Rally