Scottish Borders rally driver wins championship

A rally driver from Duns, in the Scottish Borders, has just been crowned Scottish Rally Champion for the first time.

Euan Thorburn, and his co-driver Paul Beaton, won the prestigious title after beating rivals David Bogie and Kevin Rae on the McRae Stages rally in Perth.

Bogie, from Dumfries, has won the last five championships consecutively, but has been under pressure from Thorburn all year.

The two drivers went into the penultimate round of the championship with three wins each, but as they only count their best six of eight scores, a win for Thorburn was enough to take the title. Both Thorburn and Bogie had been battling it out all day over the 40 miles of Perthshire stages.

Going into the final stage there were only a few seconds separating the two, but it was Bogie who made the mistake and slid off.

This allowed Thorburn to take advantage of his mistake and take home the win.

The McRae stages is named after rallying legend Colin McRae, who was also one of Thorburn's heros.

The Duns driver will now go down in history as a motorsport champion, along with racing legend Jim Clark who is from the same Borders town.