It’s not every day that ŠKODA Motorsport decides to profile the managing director of a plant hire and waste management company. Then again, David Bogie is not just any old MD. In addition to his very serious day job, he just happens to be a record-breaking rally driver.
Earlier this year, David Bogie secured the 50th rally victory of his career. With one British and five Scottish rally titles already under his belt by the age of just 30, he still has plenty of time to add to his already illustrious track record.
David Bogie began rallying in his native Scotland, making his debut drive in a Vauxhall Nova back in 2004, at the age of just 17. He was to spend the following two seasons in that car, honing his skills while competing in the BTRDA Championship.
His first full campaign in the Scottish Rally Championship was in 2007. After switching to a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX for the majority of the season, he finished an impressive 3rd in the standings; a result he repeated the following season. 2007 also saw the first overall rally victory of his career, at the Colin McRae Forest Stages; his one and only drive of that season in a Toyota Corolla WRC.
Bogie’s real breakthrough season was to be 2009, when he made his first assault on the British Rally Championship. Reliability issues with his Mitsubishi saw him finish a disappointing 9th in the final standings.
He would more than compensate for this north of the border, however, where he secured a debut Scottish Rally Championship title. A consistent season saw victories at the Jim Clark Reivers Rally and the Speyside Stages, which, combined with two other podium places, were enough to see him claim his first career championship title.
It quickly became a habit. In 2010, five successive rally victories saw Bogie easily retain his Scottish title. He made it a hat-trick in 2011, winning four of the opening six rounds to be crowned champion with two rallies in hand.
That season was a high-point in Bogie’s career – he also managed to add a maiden British title to the trio of his Scottish triumphs.
Alongside regular co-driver Kevin Rae, Bogie scored victories at three of the first four rounds; the Rallye Sunseeker International, the Pirelli International Rally, and the Jim Clark International Rally. A runners-up finish at the Rally of North Wales saw him well placed to claim the title, but it was not until he secured 3rdplace at the Rally Yorkshire in the final round that the title was definitely secured.
This was a historic achievement for David Bogie. He became the first driver ever to win both the British and Scottish Rally titles in the same year. He is also the last person to win the British Championship in a 4-wheel-drive car.
Bogie didn’t defend his British title the following season, but he did claim a fourth successive Scottish Rally title with five event victories and two more podium places. In 2012, after switching to a Ford Focus RS WRC formerly driven by Scottish rallying legend Colin McRae, he claimed Scottish title number five.
He is still the only driver to have won five successive Scottish Rally championship.
That run had to come to an end eventually, and it did so in 2014. Reliability issues with his Ford Focus and a switch to a Ford Fiesta R5+ saw him win only three rounds. He was edged out of the title race by Euan Thorburn, with just five championship points separating them.
After an inconsistent year in 2015, Bogie was revitalized in 2016. A switch to a ŠKODA FABIA R5, run by the CA1 Team, saw him return to the British Rally Championship fray for the first time since winning the title five years previously.
It was a mixed season for Bogie. Three top-five finishes saw him placed seventh in the final standings, but the season ended on a high with a 9thplace finish in the WRC2 standings at the Wales Rally GB, driving for the Wevers Sport team.
Last season started well enough, with four wins from the opening six rallies he drove. It was derailed in pretty spectacular fashion, however, by a bad crash at the Ypres Rally. The damage that was caused to his FABIA R5 meant that he was forced to sit out the following round, the Nicky Grist Stages, as well, and in the end, he aborted the campaign and focused again on the Wales Rally GB. This proved a wise decision as Bogie finished a remarkable 14th overall and 4th in the WRC2 standings.
The 2018 season has seen another mixed start. Bogie has made amends for that crash at the Ypres Rally, finishing 2nd in the British standings and 9thoverall this time round. This is his best British Rally Championship result yet, in a FABIA R5.
He also claimed that landmark 50th career win at the Scottish Rally, and the poignancy of achieving this outstanding result at his home rally wasn’t lost on him.
It’s easy to look at David Bogie’s achievements – six titles and fifty rally wins to his name – and forget that these are the results of an amateur driver. As with many other rally drivers, Bogie has had to fit his rallying in around a full-time job and, while the companies he has worked for must have been accommodating, this is still no mean feat. He is, without doubt, the most successful amateur rally driver that Scotland has ever produced.
There are no signs of Bogie letting up yet. Despite his long career, David Bogie is still only 30 years old, and the hunger to compete and win in rallying remains as strong in him as ever.
This season has seen him join teammate Fredrik Åhlin in Sweden to compete in the Östersund Winter Rally. With new co-driver John Rowan beside him, he continues to push himself towards new goals, one of them being this year’s British Championship title.
It is clear that David Bogie is keen to add yet more titles to his CV and it would be foolish to bet against one of the most successful drivers in Scottish rallying history from doing just that.
