DAVID BOGIE: RALLYING ISN’T JUST ABOUT SUCCESS

David Bogie is one of the biggest names in British rallying from over the past two decades. His CV speaks for itself – six Scottish Rally Championship titles, the 2011 British Rally Championship crown, over 50 rally wins; Bogie certainly doesn’t have a small trophy cabinet.

Blindingly fast and utterly professional, Bogie cut his teeth as a teenager in a humble Vauxhall Nova before spreading his wings and entering the four-wheel-drive game, winning rallies pretty much immediately and the championships soon followed.

Despite continued success against the clock, incredibly Bogie hadn’t lifted a championship title in almost a decade before second place on the Galloway Hills Rally earlier this month was enough to assure him of a record-extending sixth domestic title.

As you’re about to discover, the Galloway Hills has a very special place in Bogie’s heart – as does the famed Scottish Rally, an event Bogie has won more times than anybody else in history. Thanks to you, the MN reader, Bogie talks openly about his love of a famous rear-wheel-drive machine, his work with a World Rally Championship team, ice hockey, rivals and why rallying for him has never purely been about success at all.

Question: How early did you realise you wanted to be a rally driver?

Morgan Tries Via email David Bogie: “I can’t really remember. Obviously from a very young age, my dad had a very keen interest in rallying and my mum and dad actually met in the car club, so I was going to rallies at a very young age. Probably one of the earliest memories I do have was 1993 Galloway Hills Rally and Colin McRae was there and he was spectating, and I can always remember my dad saying to me ‘go and get that guy’s autograph, he’s going to be World champion someday’ and Colin laughed, but of course he was World champion in ’95. But we got the programme signed. I was really young at that time, just six years old. That was probably my first real taste of rallying and that’s when the bug would bite me.”

MN: I’m assuming you must still have that programme somewhere?

DB: “I do, yeah. Actually, a friend of mine, Murray Grierson, he’s on the front cover in a Metro 6R4. He must have won it in 1992. So yeah I’ve still got it there.”

Question: Who was your rallying hero?

“Colin McRae. I think obviously meeting Colin at that young age [helped] and we followed Colin through his World championship title and beyond, so Colin McRae. I was fortunate enough to get to know