1996 – Murmur Chapter 6

MULLMURMURSMULLMURMURSMULLMURMURS – Chapter 6

– published on the island, during the event by Jaggy Bunnet

Provisional Leaderboard after 8 Stages:

Posn	Driver/Co-Driver	Car	Mins:Secs
1	Callum Duffy/Hugh Duffy	Ford Escort	63:48
2	Neil MacKinnon/Mike Stayte	Subaru Legacy	64:44
3	James MacGillivray/Brian Kennedy	Opel Corsa	66:27
4	Chris Griffiths/Stephen Griffiths	Subaru Legacy	66:32
5	Eddie O'Donnell/Eddie O'Donnell	Ford Escort	68:08
6	John Price/Mike Bowen	MG Metro 6R4	68:20
7	Paul Kirtley/Jon Geldart	Ford Escort Cosworth	69:25
8	Richard Thompson/Reg Smith	Nissan Sunny	70:25
9	Gordon Boyd/Stella Boyles	Ford Escort Cosworth	71:16
10	Stewart Hymas/Kevin Wilson	Peugeot 205 GTI	71:50

What a dramatic Philips Tour of Mull this is shaping up to be. With Neil MacKinnon learning how to drive the Subaru over the first three rain lashed stages last night, Callum Duffy seized the opportunity with his right foot to quickly build up a lead of over a minute as they booked into first service at Craignure. With the rapid learning curve now over, MacKinnon fought back but only managed to take 12 seconds out of Duffy who still had over a minute in hand. Over the final two stages, MacKinnon was fastest on Loch Scridain but Duffy was fastest over Gribun. Phew! … Behind these two Chris Griffiths, like MacKinnon, was on a steep learning curve with his Subaru and after 6 stages had snatched third place from James MacGillivray. Then on the final mad dash of the night over Gribun, MacGillivray stole 19 seconds from Griffiths to move back into third. More Phew!! … The O'Donnell twins are goin well too upholding island honour with 4 local crews in the top 5 places while lurking in 6th place is the mighty Metro. John Price will undoubtedly go well in the daylight stages, "At least I can see where I'm going then" … It looks as though John Cope is out. The Sierra lost all its water on the 6th stage last night and he was spotted parked up in the 7th. Also spotted at the side of the road (OK, he was off in the bushes) was Keith Robathan, so bang go his chances of the EARS Motorsport/ Motoring News runner-up position. That leaves Graham Dale and Michael Russell to fight it out, and they're little more than 40 seconds apart at the moment … We've also had reports that Stephen Macrae (135) is out after a serious bump during the night, Frosty Smart (29) also appears to be out of the running following an accident in the Lancia and Geoff Wright (32) appears to have joined the growing list of retirements (see earlier Mullmurmurs).

But you know, I can't help thinking someone should take Duffy and MacGillivray aside and point out that people in 2 wheel drive cars should not be knocking the stuffing out of the turbocharged, four wheel drive brigade in these terrible conditions. Have they no respect for their elders? And what about the 1300s? Daniel Harper is in the top 20 in his Mini, on ten inch wheels, that's not right either, is it? But Duggie Ingram's Mini and Jim Fergusson's Peugeot aren't far away.

That's yer lot for now, till later, Yer auld pal, Jaggy Bunnet, (Tobermory, Saturday morning)

Published October 9, 2009

2009 – Murmur Chapter 3

MullMurmurs – Chapter 3

(Very) Provisional Leaderboard after SS (of 17)

1 MacKinnon/MacGilivray 12 Mins 15 Secs
2 MacKinnon/Stayte 12m 33s
3 Hall/Hall 12m 33s
4 Cope/Fagg 12m 49s
5 Harper/Campbell 13m 01s
6 Pattison/Whittaker 13m 03s
7 MacGillivray/Fraser 13m 05s
8 Pye/Falconer 13m 10s
9 Bardy/Smith 13m 12s
10 Bonniwell/Ewing 13m 20s
11 O’Donnell/O’Donell 13m 26s
12 Duffy/Duffy 13m 56s
13 Biggerstaff/Wyllie 13m 59s
14 Kirtley/Jones 13m 59s

(Note: These positions may change as more Time Cards come in)

It’s dark, wet and cold out there. It must be Mull. After five years of remarkably docile weather I suppose it had to happen, but here we are on the 40th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally and it’s business as usual. The route is different this year which has had an impact on the MullMurmurs Bulletin Service. We can’t get to where we usually like to be and distribution will be even more tricky than normal. However, we’ll do our best, so please bear with us. For those of you new to the MullMurmurs operation, his highly factual and informative gossip and scandal sheet will endeavour to keep you up to date during the rally so look out for it as Bulletin Bill runs ahead of the rally distributing this free newssheet.

Anyway, this year’s event started with a bang, reverbrating around the walls of Tobermory Bay with the first of two ‘city centre special stages’ in the city of Tobermory.

At the end of that opening blast, young Paul MacKinnon said: “That was the slippiest thing I’ve seen in my life. I nearly swapped ends at the hairpin when the handbrake seized on.” Slippiness was a point echoed by Dougi Hall: “Tyres cold, wet and slippy, but it was alright.” Neil MacKinnon added: “I thought it was so slippy that at first I didn’t think the diffs were working, and then I thought it was the tyres.” John Cope summed it up: “It is what it is, a bit of fun.”

Calum Duffy was a bit more succinct: “Cheeses (or words to that effect) there was no grip at all, it was wheelspin all the way up the hill.” Daniel Harper chipped in: “It was just a b it of fun, what else on cold tyres, wet weather and wet tarmac.” Tony Bardy was expecting the test to be a bit quicker: “It was slower than I thought it would be, but there was a lot of people there.” James MacGillivray enjoyed it too. “Slippy but good fun,” he reckoned.

Tristan Pye was a bit more realistic in the new shape Impreza: “There was everything to lose and nothing to gain in those onditions but it was good fun”. Dave Miller thought it was: “Smashing, just smashing.” Doug Weir was taking it seriously but co-driver Duncan Brown was tooting the horn all the way, so much for reading the Pace Notes then!

Dave Hopwood had a last minute panic: “The battery was flat at the start. We had to get a jump start at MacKay’s Garage and did the first stage without spotlights, but we were OK for the second run.” Paul Kirtley thought: “Going through Tobermory was a real hoot.” Tugs Sherrington said: “It was so slippy it was like driving a MkII, it was sideways everywhere,” and he’s driving a Lancer.

And the best quote of the night (so far!) came from the O’Donnell twins in car 15: “It wasn’t easy passing the MacDonald Arms without going in for a pint!”

STOP PRESS: Looks like John Cressey is out on SS3 with a broken gearbox in the MINI and heartbreakingly, young John MacCrone has gone off in SS3 in the Honda Civic, and it looks as though he is out too. Also in trouble, but not quite as bad as those two is Calum Duffy. The Escort picked up a puncture and he was passed by Dougi Hall in the stage.

That’s yer lot for now,
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Friday, 10.00 pm, At the foot of Glen Aros

Leave a comment Cancel reply