EWAN Tindall will be out to prove a point when he competes on this weekend’s Malcolm Wilson Rally.
The talented youngster has been seeded at car 46 for the Cumbrian-based event in his Fiesta R2.
“I’m the last of the R2 runners, so I’ll be going out to make a point!” joked Tindall, who is the 2019 John Easson Award winner.
“We had a difficult debut with the new car on the Cambrian, but I’m confident that the Malcolm Wilson will be different.
“The car took a bit of a battering on the stages in North Wales, but we’ve only had to change the clutch and do a few little jobs to get it ready, I feel much more at home with it now, thanks to the miles we clocked up on our way to fifth in class.
“We will need to see what the pace of the other R2 competitors is like, but I feel much more confident in being able to push on.
“The format is different too, with only one stage, Greystoke, being used twice. That should mean that the tracks should be in reasonable condition by the time we go through. We might have to pick our way through Greystoke second time around, as by then I reckon almost 120 cars will have already been through.
Tindall and co-driver Andrew Roughead are currently fourth overall in the R2 Rallye Cup, which forms part of the BTRDA Championship, and joint leaders in the MRF Mixed Surface Challenge.
He said: “I’m really looking forward to getting out again, the only question mark will be weather, you can get rain, hail, snow and sunshine all in one day in the Lake District. We went through the pacenote video last week and there was snow everywhere, so that could make life interesting.”
*Ewan Tindall would like to thank the 2300 Club, his dad Lee and Simon Hewitt for their support.
For more information on the Malcolm Wilson Rally visit www.malcolmwilsonrally.co.uk.
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Provisional Top Ten after SS14 (of 19)
1 Neil MacKinnon/Mike Stayte (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1 Hr 31 Mins 37 Secs
2 Calum Duffy/Iain Duffy (Ford Escort Mk2) 1h 33m 09s
3 John Cope/Tony Cope (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1h 35m 36s
4 Paul Kirtley/David Jones (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1h 36m 05s
5 Denis Biggerstaff/Graham Thomson (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1h 36m 36s
6 John Price/Caroline Price (MG Metro 6R4) 1h 37m 44s
7 Tony Bardy/Reg Smith (Hyundai Accent WRC) 1h 38m 09s
8 John Swinscoe/Bill Robertson (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO9) 1h 39m 11s
9 Cameron Maclean/Alastair Fraser (Ford Escort Mk2) 1hr 40m 04s
10 Mark Durham/Andy Mort (Mitsubishi Lancer) 1h 40m 10s
(Please Note: These times are provisional pending confirmation by Rally HQ)
As most of you will know after trudging out of empty stages late on in the afternoon, rallying was curtailed due to a number of separate incidents. Thankfully none too serious, but the cumulative effect meant that the organisers were running out of Road Closure Time to get everyone through. One competitor has been airlifted out of a stage, but this is purely a precautionary measure as the competitor in question was able to make phone calls whilst the Medics were attending!
So rallying will resume on this 37th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally at 9.00 pm to-night outside the Salen Hotel in Salen, that is provided the event leader makes it to the start time. It would appear that Neil MacKinnon will re-start the third and final Leg tonight on his third gearbox! But at least he is still in the rally, his son Paul isn’t. “I just felt it miss a little last night,” said Paul, “but we thought it was fuel starvation but then on the first stage this afternoon it wasn’t revving too well, and when the oil light came on, I switched off!”
Calum Duffy is still holding off John Cope in second place, Paul Kirtley’s doing the business in fourth but Denis Biggerstaff is closing in and with John Price running in sixth place we have all four home nations represented in the top six of the Tunnock’s Tour.
And just to round off this rather official style bulletin, here is a true tale to warm the hearts of a hospitable nation. Apparently a French family arrived on the island to drive to their hotel earlier this afternoon completely unaware of the fact that this is ‘Motorsport Month on Mull’. Confusion reigned when they were denied access to the road which led past their hotel till Safety Officer Ron Cowan threw his cape across the puddle and bridged the cultural gap. He personally escorted them by orange flashing beacon to a safe spectating point, provided a variety of Tunnock’s confections, apparently they had never seen a teacake before let alone eaten one, and some bottles of Irn Bru, another foreign taste to their culture upbringing. Delighted? Ils sont tres hereuse (that’s French you uneducated lot!). Aye, it just proves the ‘Auld Alliance’ is alive and well on Mull.
And remember, the Mediterrania Restaurant at Salen does the best pizzas on the island. Genuine Italian food cooked to genuine Italian recipes, and both sit-in or takeway. Why not drop in when down that way tonight.
That’s yer lot for now,
Yer auld pal, Jaggy Bunnet, Aros Hall, Tobermory, 6.30 pm, Saturday
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MullMurmurs – Chapter 2
Let’s start with a BIG news story. It’s not raining. Well, for the moment, anyway. This morning’s cheerless drizzle has given way to dry skies, let’s hope they stay that way for the weekend. I’m not thinking of the competitors here, I’m thinking of the Marshals, those dozens of lads and lassies from all over the UK who come each year to the Tunnock’s Tour of Mull and who help to make this the best damn rally in the world. Thanks to all of you.
The 39th Tunnock’s Tour will shortly get underway and the Scroots have been all day shoogling wheels and waggling wires (see, I do technical stuff as well) ahead of tonight’s speedfest. By the way, Happy Birthday to 2300 Club President Joan Molyneux. Don’t tell anyone it was me, and keep it a secret, but she was 80 just a couple of weeks back. It must be the porridge.
Tristan Pye’s Subaru looks the business. He was 5th last year and Paul MacKinnon is running in a Pye Motorsport sister car, so no pressure there then. John Marshall is back on Mull having packed away the racing Legend for the weekend to return to his first love, rallying. He’s got the TegSport ex Manx winning Mark Higgins Subaru, so no pressure there either, but John had a lovely tale to tell. He was at Monza the other week for World Touring Cars and had dinner with twice British Touring Car Champion and Sky TV pundit John Cleland who asked him if he was racing this weekend. John Marshall said, no, he was going to do the Tunnock’s Tour of Mull. Well, to say Mr Cleland’s gob was smacked was an understatement. “Is that so?” he enquired, “Jaggy Bunnet used to co-drive for me when I was a rally driver.” Well, there you go, famous across the globe, that’s me. Imagine going all the way to Monza to find that out.
Billy Bird has got another Astra, but a FWD one this time. He bought it earlier this year and after it’s first event, put a new engine in it. He had to! Tugs Sherrington is a turncoat. He sold his Escort and built a Lancer. The chassis plate declares ‘Mull Edition Special’. Cameron MacLean’s Escort is still in the process of being re-shelled so he’s borrowed a Lancer for the weekend. 1st time in 4WD for him. Chris Tooze has refettled the Lancer and sincerely hopes to avoid last year’s culvert.
And here’s a surprise, Eddie O’Donnell wasn’t last man through Scrutineering, the car appeared at 11.25 this morning and sailed through without a query! See, miracles do happen on Mull. He was out on the McRae the other week where ECU failure sidelined him, lucky it happened there and not here though. Grum Willcock had trouble sourcing a new back axle for his Opel Manta, but eventually got one, in America!
And what about Dave Thwaites latest work of automotive art. A MkII with a 2.4 Duratec and 6 spd seq hydraulic paddle shift and suspended on full Reiger suspension with a WRC Escort rear end. It’s the usual shade of duck egg blue, but it looks minted out of its mind. Curly Haigh is back with the MkI but it’s got Proflex suspension now. Only trouble is he doesn’t know how to set it up. Some things don’t change. John Swinscoe had a panic this morning. Rain got into his electrics and set off the fire extinguishers. Fortunately, Alan Brown of Questmead just happened to have an exactly similar system in stock – but only because it was a cancelled order. How lucky was that?
Denis Biggerstaff was spotted casting his eyes skyward. The last 4 times he’s done Mull, they were dry, but he’s not worried about the wet, as long as he’s on the right tyres. That’ll be a big concern for all tonight.
Some things never change. Sid ‘The Parrot’ Fleming ran out of fuel on the way to Scrutineering and the boys had to get behind him and push the car in, including co-driver Fergus Loudon who just happens to be one of the ‘High Heid Yins’ at Tunnocks. Hardly the way to impress your sponsor, but then Sid is just like the Queen, she never carries cash either even though her handbag is bigger than Sid’s.
The Irish are great fun thought aren’t they? Fiona Boa is co-driving for Damian Hagan but the Irishman is calling the local lass ‘Ony’. I can honestly say there is no truth in the rumour that this is because Damian can only cope with words of one syllable or less. His crew told me that, so it must be true.
And what about the perennial pairing of Chris Paton and Dave Cabena? This will be Chris’ 38th Tour while Dave has done them all. As for the Nova, well not quite. Chris started with a Mini way back in 19 Oatcake. He nearly didn’t make it this year. He pranged it last year and had to rebuild the suspension so did the engine as well and then took it to Ingliston in July and guess what, he had suspension and engine problems. So he finished the job this week.
Jim Brindle is back for more in his Mini with its 1960 number plate although that is just about the only original feature left on the car. He’s threatening to build a ‘new’ 1969 Mini Clubman for next year. Rob Eastwood has been footering about with his Mini too. Out has gone the 970 Cooper S engine to be replaced with a 1275 unit from Minisport. It was just finished a week ago and he hasn’t driven it in anger yet. John Bennie is back too, he’s just finished rebuilding his Corsa which he started 3 years ago! Richard Egger has completely rebuilt the Corsa. He bashed the sump on last year’s Mewla so the engine had to come out, then he thought he’d do the suspension and the gearbox, then he thought he’d strip it and paint it. Still it looks the business again now. Louise Thomas is hoping for a better Mull this year. Last year, the alternator fan burst the oil cooler pipe – so she chucked out the oil cooler! John Morrison was late through Scrutineering, but has Louise Sutherland along on co-driving duties as Ali is in New Zealand on business. She’s just as hard on him as Ali was, but has a nicer voice when she’s telling him off! Martin Page is back with the MINI but has replaced the 13 quid sensor which let him down last year. Damien Sherry is doing his first Mull as a driver. After years of coming over to watch he’s brought his 1600cc Corolla. The Irishman said: “The roads are completely and utterly different to ours – there’s no room for sleeping on the job here!”
And the Bear Cubs are back. The group of 12 to 18 year olds have entered their Corsa again with another one being readied in the wings. 17 year old Zak Hancock did his first rally on the Pendragon, so this is his second event. Fortunately for him he has the vastly more experienced Alasdair MacCrone as co-driver. This will be the 16 year old’s third rally. Oh, what I would give to be this age again with the keys to a rally car in my pocket. Gaun yersel boys, and it’s a great tribute to mentor Steve Davies who keeps this enthusiastic bunch of youngsters going. Just as long as he doesn’t give them rally driving lessons though, eh Steve?
And here’s a lovely thought to warm up a cold heart on a windswept hillside tonight. Scrutineer and long time Mull stalwart Jack Neal, who sadly passed away just the other week, is doing his first ever Mull tonight. He will be strapped down in the back of Tim Foster’s Course Car tonight. Nice one boys. Give them a cheer as they go by.
By the way, look out for ‘Bulletin Bill’ in the Blue Subaru with flashing lights tonight running ahead of the rally distributing MullMurmurs which will attempt to keep you up to date with all the news and gossip from the 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally. Take care out there, be considerate and stay safe.
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Friday, 4.00 pm, Tobermory.
P.S. Did you know that Ted Heath was born and raised in Tobermory? Who says MullMurmurs aren’t educational as well as informative?