The Evo 6 crew quickly regrouped. They were fastest through stages four and five, but were still only one second ahead of Jimmy Girvan and Mike Ramsay going into the final - and longest test of the day - the 12.75 mile Ae East.

Then disaster struck for the 2008 champion from Inverness when he rolled his Subaru, ensuring Faulkner a famous victory after notching up his fourth fastest stage time of the event.

Faulkner was both delighted - and relieved - at the outcome: "We had a real low in the middle of the day when we lost all that time stuck behind Willie," said the Kirtlebridge-based driver: "We went into the stage with five seconds covering the top six and we came out absolutely gutted thinking it was all over. But we just drove our hearts out, and it came together. Our championship campaign is certainly up and running".

Thorburn was also well-satisfied with his day's work, which came off the back of a second-place finish on his home event, the Reivers.

The Duns driver was accompanied by Campbell Roy, who took over the co-driver's seat in place of the unavailable Claire Mole.

After the first two stages, the pair were lying eighth overall - just eight seconds separating them from leaders Faulkner and Foy - but they climbed to fifth overall, and third in the points, after posting a second equal fastest time with Armstrong on SS3.

By the end of the fourth stage Thorburn and Roy were third overall, five seconds adrift of new leader Jimmy Girvan.

The pair held station for the two afternoon tests through Ae, and the runners-up spot was there for the taking after Girvan went off.

"We had a nice clean run for once, after the misfires we experienced with the car on the Granite, and early on the Reivers", said Thorburn. "Every stage seemed to work well - if you'd offered us second in the SRC points and first in GpN at the start of the day, we'd have taken it!"

Armstrong and Riddick watched the drama unfold around them, as they steered a steady course towards the final SRC podium spot - including a second-equal fastest time on the 6 mile Castle O'er stage.

Their 'moment' came in Ae when Armstrong thought a corner was a lot faster than it was and the car 'ended up parked against a tree', losing the pair a few seconds.

“All in all, it's been a very good day and it's nice to be on the podium again,” he reflected. ”The times have been very tight - it's the turn of the season now where people are looking at collecting as many points as possible, and we've achieved that today, so I'm happy”.