1999 – Murmur Chapter 2

MullMurmurs – Chapter 1

Wellhullawrerrchinasandhowzyernervesajinglin? Welcome one and all to the carameliciously unique 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally here in the world capital of international rallying, Tobermory. Forget Monaco and Lake Geneva, think Mull and Calgary Bay, besides our midgies will eat theirs for breakfast!
The rally got underway on Wednesday night with Rod Brereton’s quiz involving 25 teams at the Mishnish in aid of the Pendleside Hospice on behalf of the late, and well loved, Jack Neal. The auction raised 150 quid for the BTCC weekend prize, a Kumho jacket went for 60 quid and a Renaultsport jacket fetched even more money. In total Rod raised nearly £700. No bad, eh? By the way, Rod would like the winning Team Avenger to make contact with him, he wants the trophy left on the gantry at the Mishnish, that’s if Team Avenger hasn’t pawned it already.
Last night it was that helluva nice big chap John Fife’s turn with the annual Forum in the Aros Hall, solely in the aid of fun and frivolity. Our grateful thanks to Calum Duffy, John Cressey, Ian Grindrod, John Swinscoe, Paul MacKinnon and Louise Sutherland for taking the time out of their pre-rally preps to come and provide meaningful insight/inane drivel (cross out the one which doesn’t apply) to the packed house which attended. Naturally there were a few bruises along the way – from the flying tee-shirts. If you don’t understand, you weren’t there!
There was also a presentation last night to the now retired Sergeant Ian Erskine who has shown great patience, and dare I say it, enthusiasm, for the rally over the years, since he became the chief Polis here in 1986. Sergeant Angie MacDonald is the new chief Polis on the island so take care out there tonight and tomorrow, she’s got plenty of support. There’s more polis caurs on the island than in an episode of The Bill. The Police are great here every year, but only if you behave yourself. So when out and about exercise care on the narrow roads and park sensibly when going spectating. Badly parked cars will mean cancelled stages!
And if you don’t mind, here’s another wee intimation. There will be a wee gathering at Brian’s bench beside the cairn above Dervaig on Sunday morning at 11.00 am, for the scattering of Jack Neal’s ashes. All welcome.
Now, if you’ve happened to notice the sartorially attired rally officials, you too can avail yourself of some fashionable excesses at the Aros Hall where team support gear and rally programmes will be on sale. This is essential reading as it contains maps and a timetable. Remember, if you want get into the stages you have to be there and parked up safely before the Road Closure Time and stay there till Road Opening Time.
And so to the rally. Friday dawned wet. After four dry Mulls, the clouds looked ominous this morning, but Mull regulars are used to it, whatever happens. First car into Scrutineering at Tobermory Distillery this morning was Neil MacKinnon’s McKinstry Subaru. It is the same car as last year but the Team reckons they have sorted out the ECU problem which was causing the overheating problems last year, so the Ol’ Man of Mull should start in fine fettle tonight.
John Cope was next through after getting his engine back and fitted on Tuesday of this week. The turbo had blown on the Pendragon, but remember he was leading the CSS Stages on the Isle of Man earlier this year when he put it off 2.5 miles from the Finish. So he should be on the case tonight. Just how fit is he? He’s lost a stone and a half, two stones if he leaves his wallet at home, so he’s now a lean, mean driving machine!
James MacGillivray was in a rush to get through Scrutineering, he was going straight back to the farm to round up the cows which are due at Oban market this afternoon. Fortunately for him, his Dad is going to take them over, but if you’ve ever seen his Dad drive the cattle float, maybe James should stand down from rally driving duties! Even so, James is hardly match-fit, his bad back is back and he’s on pain killers.
Calum Duffy’s Exocet MkII was next through the arch. He went out for a wee shot this morning. “The back was all over the place in the wet,” said Calum, “the front was fine but I’m going to need to get softer tyres if it stays wet.”
Willie Bonniwell’s Subaru was looking better than it did after the McRae. Fred and the boys had done a sterling job repairing the bent bids and straightening the shiny bits. Oddly enough, all the damage was on the driver’s side, according to the team: “He ain’t that bright!”
Young Paul MacKinnon’s N10 was looking well with its jet black highlights on the bright yellow car. John Pye said he painted it ‘jet black’ for the ‘jet’ who will drive it tonight. So no pressure then, eh? But remember the youngster was up to 2nd place overall last year before trouble struck.
And here’s a sight for sore eyes, Wayne Sisson is back. Ten years ago he competed in an Astra but the lure of Mull was too much so he’s back in a Lancer.
There are four German sausage tins in the rally again, three built by Daniel Harper and one customer car. The ‘works’ cars have benefited from more development since last year and the supercharged 1600cc BMW engines are now developing 265 bhp with 245 lbs/ft torque. They’ve also got a new gearbox Daniel Harper is driving one, the effervescent John Cressey another and Ian Dawes is in the third. As an aside, John Cresset reckons it never rains on Mull. No. What happens is, it rains 2 miles out to sea and then gets blown horizontally on to the island. I know what he means! There was another surprise. Cressey was using a credit card to squeeze the bubbles out from under his stickers. I didn’t know he had one, or maybe it was someone else’s.
Doug Weir’s MkII was looking well, and four years after building the Browns of Tobermory machine they finally got to the bottom of a recurrent electrical problem. It was a broken wire. But could they find it? They made a new loom for it and tested it at an autocross before bringing it over for this year’s event.
Dougi Hall was at it again. Cycling to raise money for charity. Yesterday morning he was out pedalling furiously the 22 miles from Gruline, round Calgary to Dervaig and did it in 1 hr 5 mins 36 secs – 2 mins quicker than last year. His top speed was 47.6 mph on the downhill hairpins and he averaged 20.2 mph. Maybe he should give up the Lancer and do the Tunnock’s Tour on his bike!
First timer Wesley Patterson is here. “It’s all Calum Duffy’s fault,” said the Irishman who finished top 2WD and 5th o/a on the Wexford, “he keeps going on about Mull and talked me into it – it’s a lot tighter than I thought! They’re narrow too with no hedges and no ditches. I’ll need to keep it in the middle of the road.”
Martin Healer is back for more. He tried ski-ing but got run over by a hoodie on a snowboard and carted off to hospital where they put a metal plate in his broken leg. Now he can’t walk past a scrap yard without getting dragged in when they switch on the big magnet. So rallying is safer than ski-ing, that’s official
And fresh back from clog country and cheesy Holland, Paul Kirtley was 8th in the flat country before coming back to the hilly and rocky country. The 99 spec WRC Subaru looks the same as last year but it’s a brand ‘new’ car built for Mull but remember he had a bit of a ‘woopsy’ on that sudden rain shower last year.
So just how serious is the Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally? Just ask the Rintoul brothers. They’re still speaking, but only just. They were out doing their own Notes on the Hill Road the other night and then went back to check them. But every one was wrong, so they had to re-do them. Then they went back a third time, but there was a difference. Jim started on the 1st page this time, not the 2nd page as he did before. Driver John may be small, but he’s fiery when fully lit! I’d love to have heard them inside the car after that one.
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Friday, Noon, Tobermory.

MullMurmurs – Chapter 5

Provisional Leaderboard after SS7 (of 17)

1 MacKinnon/MacGillivray        48 Mins 04 Secs
2 Hall/Hall                49m 36s
3 MacGillivray/Fraser            49m 52s
4 Duffy/Duffy                50m 00s
5 Harper/Campbell            50m 22s
6 Pye/Falconer            50m 45s
7 Cope/Fagg                50m 45s
8 Pattison/Whittaker            50m 53s
9 Bardy/Smith            51m 01s
10 Sisson/Stone            51m 13s
(Note: These positions may change as more Time Cards come in)

At the close of play on Friday night at the end of the first Leg of this 40th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull, Paul MacKinnong and Ewan MacGillivray still lead the rally. For the moment, Paul has picked a pace he is happy with: “I’m not really bothered what the others are doing at this stage. I’ve stiffened the suspension up a wee bit but it’s still skipping a bit on the bumps.”

Behing him Dougi and Sam Hall are holding station in second place. “I’ve softened the suspension up a bit,” said Dougi, “but these boys are flying tonight.” Ewan MacGillivray is still in third place but the fast closing Calum Duffy has designs on higher positions: “I was pretty steady in Scridain,” said Calum, “but I pushed a bit in Gribun.”

John Cope dropped back a bit: “I stalled on the startline of Scridain,” he admitted sheepishly, but the car appears to be bottoming out too much for his liking and this will need to be checked overnight. Tony Bardy is cursing himself for being too smart: “I changed the steering rack for this event as I thought the new one would be a bit too nervous over the Mull bumps, but if anything it’s worse!” Daniel Harper is still going well, despite: “I know it can’t be helped, this is rallying after all, but I just can’t get going with all this stopping and starting.”

So as the top seeds head off to bed, the 2300 Club organisers were still working on the notional times for stages 3 and 4. The top seeds managed to get through them all, but after the accident they were forced to run the later runners around them and they would all get a notional time for the tests. Anyway, that will all be sorted out.

Meanwhile, further back in the field, Euan MacKay (99) was worried about some smoke appearing inside the car but it didn’t seem to slow him down and Callum Bendall (82) had a wee spin in SS5 when the Ka got a wheel on the grass verge. Mark Borthwick (101) exclaimed: I thought Otterburn was bad, but this takes the biscuit.” (I wonder if he meant that as a pun? Think about it. Oh please yourselves, I’m tired and it’s late).

Jim McDowall’s (97) gearknob came off in his hand, David Johnston (102) is worried about his clutch pedal sinking to the floor and David Calvert reckoned the lost the Notes somewhere in Loch Tuath but it didn’t slow them down. Martin Page was planning a precautionary underside inspection at Service after a really heavy landing on one of the Tuath jumps and Graham Brown was worried about heavy landings too. All his electrics cut out, but came back after some frenetic wire waggling but he had Gribun ahead with even more jumps! Ross Hunter (112) was slowed when he caught a car and Haydn Williams (111) caught a deer. It was so close it knocked a door mirror glass out. Bruce Hosie is worried about excessive play on his power steering but is carrying on at unabated pace and David Steggles has concerns about his brake pedal ‘going long’ at all the wrong times. Alex Brown in the MacCrone Peugeot is taking things steady, it’s his first real rally in the wet and Gordon MacFadyen (126) arrived at the Salen Control with smoke reeking out of the back brakes.

First time out in a 4WD car, Iain ‘Fuey the Fireman’ Noble is getting on fine but he’s never driven a car with so many switches and buttons. Aye this new technology catches up with us all Fuey. When the back end of the Sunbeam stepped out on him, it made James Fairbairns (129) wake up smartish and Shug Rutherford (124) is concerned about his low oil pressure. It might be John Hislop’s (130) first time on Mull but co-driver Gareth Williams has been around here a few times with Dougi Hall. Kevin Charles (132) was just dead chuffed to have caught and passed a car and Norman MacPhail (134) was struggling to get back on the pace after the long wait before Stage 5, but he was looking happier as he headed towards his home stages in the south of the island.

That’s yer lot for now,
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Friday, 4.00 am, At the Sea Life Centre in Oban