Defending champ David Bogie grabbed his first win of the season after dominating the latest round of the ARR Craib Scottish Rally Championship, the Aberdeen-based Coltel Granite City Rally.The 25-year-old from Dumfries was fastest through four of the five stages in his ex-Colin McRae Ford Focus WRC car."The car was pretty awesome today," admitted Bogie, who finished 1min 24secs ahead of the Mitsubishi of Aberdeen's Chris Collie, who recorded his best result in the championship."The crucial thing for me was to come out of the opening stage with a lead. That gave me the confidence to push on, and after that I drove pretty well."I'm slowly getting to grips with the car, and today's stages really suited the raw power of the car."It's great to get my first win of the season, and now we can start concentrating on trying to win the title for a fifth time in a row."But early in the day, Bogie, again co-driven by Hawick's Kevin Rae, was made to work hard for the win. Having opened a five-second lead over the Subaru Impreza of Jock Armstrong in the first stage at Fetteresso, the Castle Douglas driver took two seconds back in the next stage at Drumtochty.Undaunted, Bogie then went nine-seconds faster than Armstrong in stage three at Glenfarquhar to extend the lead back to 12s.Disappointingly, Armstrong's rally ended on the penultimate stage at Durris when the engine of his Subaru dramatically blew up and split in two.But the day was even shorter for one of the pre-event favourites, Euan Thorburn. The Duns-based driver, in another Focus WRC, was expected to challenge Bogie at the top of the leaderboard, but he was forced to retire midway through the opening stage when he flattened his car's exhaust."It's really disappointing," a gutted Thorburn admitted afterwards. "We came through a blind left-hander and it was rough on the exit. "Unfortunately there were two big stones sitting right on the line that we were committed to, and there was no way we could avoid them. The impact wrecked the exhaust."There was a mixture of delight, frustration and disappointment for championship leader, Banchory's Quintin Milne. After entering the final stage in second place, five seconds ahead of Collie, he finished the day fourth.Just four seconds eventually covered second to fourth places, with Kirtlebridge's Mike Faulkner third, one second behind Collie, and Milne a further three seconds adrift."I drove well through the final stage, but possibly backed off just a wee bit too much thinking about the championship," Milne, winner already this year of the Border Counties Rally, said."Looking back on it now, it's easy to see where we could have saved a few extra second, which would have given me the podium finish I wanted."I lifted perhaps eight times where there were some really rough sections where the road had been re-graded and there were some big sharp bits. "But it was such a competitive top five, it was a fine balance. You couldn't really afford to back-off, because I obviously lost two places very quickly."I'd love to have been on the podium for my home event, but the main thing is we've scored another good haul of points in the championship."Collie meanwhilewho earlier in the day had given Milne a new tyre after the Banchory man's Mitsubishi suffered a puncture on the opening stagewas delighted to be on the podium."I've been trying to be a little less erratic and more controlled, which seems to have worked," Collie, co-driven by Alford's Lisa Watson, admitted, "although we still had a couple of moments. "When I saw Jock at the side of the road, I knew we were in with a chance of the podium. So I just went for it, and luck's been on our side today."Stonehaven's Barry Groundwater, second in the title race heading into the Granite, and co-driven by Elgin's Neil Shanks, brought his Mitsubishi home fifth, just ahead of sixth-placed Invernessians Donnie MacDonald and Andrew Falconer sixth, also in an Evo."It's been a day of two halves", said MacDonald: "The morning stages went well for us, but we've had a really bad afternoon, and it's a bitter pill to swallow, to be honest. "It started to go wrong on the third stage: the steering wheel slipped out of my hands a few timesso I took my gloves off, and it was OK. "Then we spun again and I put on a new pair of glovesbut they were no use. I think it's a problem with the steering wheelit might need roughing up a bit. We've been in ditches, we've stopped, we've stalledit's been a bit of a nightmare."In the two-wheel drive classes, there was success for Alex Pirie from Drummuir and Huntly's David Law who made sure of Class 2 in a Toyota Yaris, while Dumfries and Galloway's Iain Haining and Mairi Riddick dominated Class 3their second consecutive victoryin a Vauxhall Nova.Aboyne's Stewart Davidson and Inverness co-driver Breagha Dobney were Class 5 victors in a Ford Escort Mk2, while Steven Smith of East Kilbride, with Daniel Johnstone of Inverness on the notes, made sure of Class 7.Class 8 winner Calum Mackenzie from Banchory, co-driven by Neil Ewing of Largs, was testing new tyres on his Escort MkII during the morning stages, while up and coming young Welsh driver Ossian Pryce won the battle of the Citroen DS3s, ahead of Irish drivers Mark Donnelly and Desi Henry.NEXT ROUND: Jim Clark Reivers Rally in Duns, June 2.

Coltel Granite City RallyTop 10:1. David Bogie (Dumfries)/Kevin Rae (Hawick) Ford Focus WRC 42mins 25secs;2. Chris Collie (Aberdeen)/Lisa Watson (Alford) Mitsubishi Evo VI +1min 24secs;3. Mike Faulkner (Kirtlebridge)/Peter Foy (Bingley) Mitsubishi Evo IX +1:25;4. Quintin Milne (Banchory)/Martin Forrest (Aberdeen) Mitsubishi Evo IX +1:28;5. Barry Groundwater (Stonehaven)/Neil Shanks (Elgin) Mitsubishi Evo IX +1:42;6. Donnie MacDonald (Inverness)/Andrew Falconer (Inverness) Mitsubishi Evo IX +1.55;7. Reay Mackay (Fort Augustus)/Stuart Louden (Subaru Impreza WRC) +2.28;8. Alistair Inglis (Montrose)/Colin Inglis (Edzell) Mitsubishi Evo V +2.36;9. Andy Horne (Inverness)/Jim Howie (Kilmarnock) DAM 4100Gti +2.41;10. Mark McCulloch (Newton Stewart)/Elliot Edmondson (Milton Keynes) Subaru Impreza +3.00.