MULLMURMURSMULLMURMURSMULLMURMURS – Chapter 8
published on the island, during the event by Jaggy Bunnet
Very unofficial Leaderboard after 19 out of 21 Stages:
| 1 | Billy Bird/Plug Pulleyn (Vauxhall Astra) | 2:26:19 |
| 2 | Neil MacKinnon/Mike Stayte (Ford Escort Cosworth) | 2:26:24 |
| 3 | Michael Shiel/Graham Shiel (Vauxhall Astra) | 2:27:12 |
| 4 | Richard Thompson/Reg Smith (Nissan Sunny) | 2:27:23 |
| 5 | Gordon Boyd/Stella Boyles (Ford Escort Cosworth) | 2:29:11 |
| 6 | Derek Carless/Pete Forrester (Ford Escort) | 2:31:11 |
| 7 | Eddie O'Donnell/Eddie O'Donnell (Ford Escort RS) | 2:33:42 |
| 8 | Alasdair Ingham/Lindsey Ayris (Lotus Sunbeam) | 2:36:32 |
| 9 | Donald Brown/Fred McLean (Talbot Sunbeam) | 2:36:36 |
| 10 | Doug Weir/Linda Brown (Vauxhall Nova) | 2:37:36 |
With just two stages (23 miles) to go, things are getting very tense at the front end of this year's 26th Philips Tour of Mull Rally. Billy Bird still leads, but MacKinnon has narrowed the gap to 5 seconds.
"Birdy" is still cheerful despite the thought of the next two stages, "I'm not going to chuck it off the island at this stage but I'm still going to try for the win."
MacKinnon looks remarkably composed and relaxed about being second, "I was misinformed about Billy's time for the first stage to-night and slackened off too much over the next two."
Michael Shiel's going well and has moved up to third ahead of the Nissan, "I'm getting too ragged now, I'm trying too hard, I'll need to get properly composed and sorted out for the final two."
Richard Thompson is well pleased with 4th place and not going to participate in any heroics at this stage, "Prior to the rally, I never reckoned on getting this high but the car is just spot on. You can't bust it. You just fly over yumps and land with power full on and full-square, it's terrific for a bloke my age to get a chance in a car like this.
Another top ten runner disappears – this time Daniel Harper's valiant run in the Mini has come to grief at the end of SS19, the diff has failed. Doug Weir has therefore joined the top ten but as reported earlier his fuel pumps are cutting out intermittently and that hasn't been cured as yet.
O'Donnell is still going well despite some suspension problems over recent stages but looking forward to the final thrash. Mark Houston has stopped before SS18, we don't know why, but he doesn't appear to be going any further.
My grateful thanks again to John and Claire for helping at Craignure with times and information.
That's all for now, Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet 11:30pm, Saturday, Craignure
