MULLMURMURSMULLMURMURSMULLMURMURS – Chapter 4
– published on the island, during the event by Jaggy Bunnet
|
Provisional Leaderboard after 5 (of 18) Special Stages |
||
| 1 | Neil MacKinnon/Mike Stayte (Subaru Impreza) | 38mins 10secs |
| 2 | Callum Duffy/Del Duffy (Ford Escort) | 38m 14s |
| 3 | Dougi Hall/Gareth Williams (Ford Escort) | 39m 05s |
| 4 | John Cope/Tony Cope (Ford Escort Cos) | 40m 22s |
| 5 | Eddie O'Donnell/Eddie O'Donnell (Ford Escort) | 41m 06s |
| 6 | Stephen Clark/Barry Young (Peugeot 106) | 41m 11s |
| 7 | James MacGillivray/Brian Kennedy (V'hall Corsa) | 41m 13s |
| 8 | Stuart McQueen/Alistair Green (Mitsubishi L) | 41m 20s |
| 9 | Robert Davies/Neil Fraser (Mitsubishi Lancer) | 41m 43s |
| 10 | John Swinscoe/Paula Swinscoe (Ford Escort) | 42m 23s |
It's rightly called' the best rally in the world' but the 32nd Philips Tour of Mull is also one of the toughest, with around 15 cars already reported off the road in the first two stages. No doubt once the St Bernards go out they'll find a few more as daylight dawns.
There's no real surprise at the top of the leaderboard at this early stage but whereas Duffy and MacKinnon tied after three, the ol' man has taken a clear lead. In Mull terms, 4 seconds is a clear lead! Lying third is Dougi Hall but he's flying hard and fast too. On 'white line crossing' out there in Gribun he flew so high that the Escort almost landed on its nose, wiping out three spotlights.
But perhaps the real revelation of the rally so far is the pace of Stephen Clark in the wee Peugeot. He's up to 6th overall and a mere 2 seconds in front of local hot-shot James MacGillivray. Is James upset? Not a bit of it, he's rubbing his hands with glee "We've got a fight on our hands now, he's going well. I don't really know Stephen very well but he was impressive at the Mull Rallysprint earlier this year." James lost time over the first 3 stages with brake troubles but they were fixed at service.
Another in brake trouble was Ian Colman "We lost brakes half way through the first stage and then did the next two with none, but they're fixed now" … Curley Haigh is well chuffed with the new suspension set-up in his MkI and he's lying inside the top 20 … top 1300 at the moment is the irrepressible Dougie Ingram, inside the top 30 in a Mini … but there's a lot of gaps appearing in the entry list … Mark Jasper failed to get the Metro fixed and he's out and George Grieve has gone missing … it also looks as though Rob Barry's going no further, reports coming in suggest he's had a 'biggie' on Gribun … Linda Allen is still going. On Tuesday night the Astra dropped a valve and there is a crack in the block.The crack has been filled with plastic metal and the rest repaired from scrap engines … and spare a thought for Paul Daniel (85). It's his first 'full' Mull. He was a reserve last year and did the Trophy, but if he could finish the big event then that would be just 'magic'.
That's yer lot meantime, more later Yer auld pal, Jaggy Bunnet, Salen Hotel, 1:00 am Saturday.
Final Awards for Printing