MULLMURMURSMULLMURMURSMULLMURMURS – Chapter 5
published on the island, during the event by Jaggy Bunnet
Official Leaderboard after First Leg, (8 out of 21 Stages):
| 1 | Calum Duffy/Hugh Duffy (Ford Escort RS) | 1:02:16 |
| 2 | Neil MacKinnon/Mike Stayte (Ford Escort Cosworth) | 1:03:42 |
| 3 | Eddie O'Donnell/Eddie O'Donnell (Ford Escort RS) | 1:05:58 |
| 4 | Billy Bird/Plug Pulleyn (Vauxhall Astra) | 1:07:23 |
| 5 | Michael Shiel/Graham Shiel (Vauxhall Astra) | 1:07:33 |
| 6 | Richard Thompson/Reg Smith (Nissan Sunny) | 1:08:04 |
| 7 | Stuart Egglestone/Steve Egglestone (Peugeot 309) | 1:09:04 |
| 8 | John Shirley/Neil Fraser (Ford Escort RS) | 1:09:21 |
| 9 | Derek Carless/Pete Forrester (Ford Escort) | 1:09:59 |
| 10 | Dave Miller/Andrew Bailey (Ford Escort RS) | 1:10:04 |
Calum and Huigh Duffy set the pace last night on the 26th Philips Tour of Mull Rally with a time half a minute quicker than anyone over the opening Glen/Hill Road stage. His Mum was spectating in there and nearly fainted at the sight and sheer speed of the flying Escort. They held their advantage all the way to the end of the first leg, despite breaking a rear shocker in the final stage of the night, to lead MacKinnon/Stayte by nearly a minute and a half. MacKinnon admits to being off the pace because he's rusty and rumour has it that he's not spraying his oxters with Right Guard this morning – he's using WD40!
The O'Donnell twins are going awfy well too but so is Billy Bird, he's really doing well to lead the visitors. Behind him Graham Shiel is now on his third engine mounting but if that's all his problems then he can cope. And what about the number 71 seed, Graham Miller? He's driving a blinder in 10th place.
But they are the lucky ones, Paul Kirtley (8) and Mark Hudson (19) had accidents on the Hill Road and Roy Jarvis (30) brought the phone lines down when he whacked a telegraph pole. Both Gordon Boyd (6) and Steingrimur Ingason (7) face a hectic morning this morning, both are needing serious gearbox repairs. Boydie managed to reach Salen and stay in the main event but Steini couldn't make the last two stages of the night so he's hoping to have a crack at the Trophy Rally.
Other leading retirements include John Price (2) dropped valve, Jimmy Paterson (11) sheared wheel studs, John Cope (17) alternator, Tugs Sherrington (22) engine and Geoff Wright (24).
Daniel Harper leads the 1300 class in the Mini with a superb 13th place at the moment but doesn't know if he'll be going much further. The Mini landed on a rock beyond a yump during the night, tore the floor out of the passenger side, and damaged Les Reger's leg. He had to be taken to hospital to have it seen to. And Donald Brown leads the 1600 class in 16th place and these capacity class battles are just as fierce as the race at the top.
That's all for now, Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet Morning (some time), Saturday, Tobermory
