Updated Entry List for Andy Mort Tour

MullMurmurs – Chapter 2

Under the command of Fuhrer Whittaker, the Scroots have been hard at work all day in the Distillery, shoogling wheels, sealing turbos and checking paperwork but they are finally getting through the gathered 160 odd cars and crews. But Roger has a wee surprise in store. It’s his 60th birthday in 2 weeks time so Course Car, Neil Calvert is taking him out for a run through the stages tomorrow afternoon. It will be Roger’s first run in a competition car since 1970!

There was another shock in store for the Scroots. When they opened Aggie Foster’s (57) kit bag to check her Nomex race suit they found a very unusual item of apparel wrapped up in the suit. Nevertheless they checked out the lacy black thong and attached a ‘non compliance’ note stating that they weren’t fireproof.

Iain ‘Ogg’ MacKenzie (41) has a 5 speed Quaife in the wee Peugeot cos he couldn’t get a dog box in time and it’s good to see Ian Corkhill (43) here. The Isle of Man resident feels he should support an event on another island so he’s here with his glorious MkI. It’s also good to see Giles Brooksbank (32) back. The Doc has said he’s fit to go rallying again, but then the Doc has never seen him drive, so what would he know?

John Woodward (59) was keen to stress that his sponsor WMD had nothing to do with Tony Blair and Steven Ronaldson (58) was looking a bit nervous about what lies ahead. He’s bought Jon Burn’s MG Metro 6R4. Dave Thwaites (56) has been busy replacing the Ford power steering pump with a Vauxhall electrical system and is better pleased with the feel. But we all like a good feel don’t we?

Spotted an interesting innovation on Chris Paton’s (74) Nova. It has only one centrally mounted w/screen wiper. Chris swears by Rain-X (as Calum Duffy does too) to shed the rain water better than a sweeping wiper. Carl Tuer (53) was looking better pleased. He found out why his new MG X Power was a pig to drive. Whoever had prepped it before he bought it had fitted the steering rack the wrong way round!

As ever, last minute preparations feature highly in Mull tales. John Rintoul’s (63) centre diff failed last Tuesday despite his best intentions to have the car on the trailer by the weekend, so it was a re-fit and driveshaft replacement all round before he could come over. It makes you wonder doesn’t it? Jim Brindle stepped out of his BL Mini wearing a Ford jacket, apparently son Steve works for M-Sport. Divided loyalties, eh.

Good to see Mr Fergus Loudon co-driving for Grant ‘Sid the Parrot’ Fleming (83). As you know Mr Loudon is the Production Director at Tunnock’s. Lovely chap, and wonderful biscuits. After their Subaru exploits last year, they’re back in a MkII. Bright red and drop dead racy, that’s Fooey the Fireman’s (119) MkI Escort. As a reward for finishing the rebuild of his new Historic car, Alan Gardiner (47) has let Iain Noble from MacKay’s Garage loose in it this weekend.

Andrew Smith (94) was at the Forum last night and when presenting his wee Peugeot at Scrutineering, reminded me that he did the Tour of Mull in 1972 when it was a round of the Shell Scottish Rally Championship while another ol’timer, Bill Lymburn (148) is now in his fifth decade of rallying spread over 31 years (think about it, it does compute!). He competed in a Mini in the 70s, rose to great heights in National rallying and is now back with a MkII.
Bill Langford’s Astra (107) appeared with a parrot stuck to the roof. Apparently, codriver Tom Paterson’s daughter Lee stuck it on their first car and it has been transferred to every one ever since over the past 12 years. Mike Kent (129) has an ex Mike Taylor Developments Ford Escort Cosworth which he drives in the Rally Car class at Hillclimbs and Speed events as well as rallies. I thought it was only wimmin who could multi task.

Tracey Louise Muir and Garry Muir (105) have both navigated on Mull before but this is their first time together (nice innit!) with Tracey driving and Garry on the Notes. Louise Thomas and Wendy Whittaker have purloined Louise’s Dad’s Mini which he first drove in 1969 and are raising funds for Maggie’s Cancer Care Homes. Go girls, go. And be nice to Richard Egger (121), he bought the whisky miniatures for the Marshal’s goody bags! He’s still got the Nova, but he seems to be collecting Escorts these days, this is his second MkI.

Norman MacPhail found his Corsa sumpguard grounding out so needed to bend it, but it was too strong. So he went to Harry McDowall’s garage and tried to Porta-Power it against the roof. It lifted the roof! The sumpguard is still straight! At 144 is the Bear Club entry. It’s John MacCrone’s first event as a driver (he navigated for his sister Heather last year) and Zak Hancock’s (good Scottish name, eh) first event as codriver. There are 9 younsgters between the age of 12 and 19 who work on the Bear Cub Nova, the excellent project fostered by Steve Davies.

Donna Ingram (130) is taking the issue of weight saving very seriously, even her lipstick holder on top of the dash is made from carbon fibre. Apparently the Mini is called the ‘Miniru’, as it’s the only non-Subaru in Kenny McKinstry’s workshops. Alan Cowan’s (128) Peugeot has done 3 Jim Clarks and 3 Mulls – not bad for a shopping car with a cage and suspension. Mark Booth (143) is back with his Honda powered Mini. After marshalling for 7 years he built this device and competed in 2004 but broke the steering rack.

Drew Struthers (127) has obviously spent a lot of time and thought on Mull prep. He’s fitted an anti roll bar and forest suspension to the Vauxhall powered Sunbeam. And it’s good to see Rod Brereton out in his Renault Clio, he started the 3 year build project – 12 years ago! And what about young Ross Hunter’s (152) Challenge spec Peugeot 205. It positively sparkled at Scrutineering and looked even better than a factory fresh car. This is his new car for next season and first time out is Mull. Check out the graphics on the roof. Nice one Ross.

After spending 10 months building his Cooper S, Martin Page (146) was looking a mite apprehensive. He’s never been to Mull before, even to spectate. The Morrisons were in trouble again (93) and (158), the Toyota Starlet broke a camshaft on Wednesday morning and the Escort wouldn’t fire up and wouldn’t go.

And finally, the O’Donnell twins appeared at 3.30 pm\this afternoon to get through Scrutineering. By all accounts, at 12 noon yesterday the Escort looked like an ‘exploded car diagram’. All we need now is a finish and a result.

And here’s a tale I couldn’t resist. David Balfour Fotheringham, co-driver to Dave Calvert (86), was out recceing the other day, with Dave driving DBF’s shiny and unmarked Audi. Approaching a narrow bridge, Dave didn’t hear the word ‘narrow’ – the wing mirror pinged and snapped back against the passenger window. DBF didn’t even twitch, just rolled don the electric window and pushed the mirror back, and rolled the window back up. It was his first mark on the Audi since he got it!

And what about Paul Marshall (80). The Triumph TR7 was prepped and ready to rally two weeks ago, so Paul went out one night to set the lights up – and ditched it. Back to the workshop to straighten the wing and steering and re-prep it for Mull.

Young David Bogie is here, but is a non starter. The Lancer rolled, ever so gently, on the Trackrod a couple of weeks back. They couldn’t even salvage the dashboard! Jim Carty (31) is also a non starter in the Metro – I think the wife wouldn’t let him come over! Craig Bennett (36) is another non starter, as is Jim McKenna (46).

And if you hear a siren and see flashing lights just ahead of the rally to-night that could be Bulletin Bill and Cruella Crumpet with the ‘MullMurmurs’, so look out for the Flying Ford Focus and be ready at the road side to grab a Bulletin!

And if you need to keep your sugar levels up for a night of serious spectating, there is only one possible remedy and it starts with a ‘T’.

Yer auld pal, Jaggy Bunnet, Tobermory, 5.00 pm, Friday

MullMurmurs – Chapter 1

Well, hullawrerrchinasanhowzyertastebudstinglin? Welcome one and all to the 37th running of the annual Tour of Mull Rally and an especially warm welcome to that harbinger of all things scrumptiously tasty, St Tunnock’s of Biscuitry, sponsors of ‘the best rally in the world’.

Things got off to a quietly rowdy start in the Aros Hall last night where a Scotsman, an Englishman, a Welshman and an Irishman gathered together for the pre-rally forum chaired by someone from another nation entirely (but we haven’t found out where), Mr John Fife. First time on the panel James MacGillivray represented the Scots and for someone who’s shy proved remarkably adept at the spoken word. John Cope was there on behalf of the English and determined to go well this year, the most ‘winningest’ man in British rallying and having driven more types of rally car than anyone else, John Price is back for another crack at the one event which has frustrated his trophy cabinet and Denis Biggerstaff is back – just for the craic!

But even before that Rod Brereton was up to his usual tricks on the Wednesday night running a music quiz in the MishNish and raised £275 for the RNLI while another on ‘good works’ duty was Dougi Hall. He cycled the full length of the 22 miler yesterday setting a time of 1 hour 7 minutes 33 seconds and averaging 19.94 mph for the trip – then he cooled down by cycling over the lochs! And the reason, he was being sponsored to raise funds for the bear Cubs, the groups of rallying youngsters that Steve Davies is helping out – and Dougi is still open for donations, it’s a good cause!

And just before the rally gets underway, make sure you get ‘tooled up’ for the weekend, the 2300 Club girls are selling Tunnock’s Tour of Mull gear in the Aros Hall and the fully informative programmes are on sale there too and many shops around the towns and villages. This is essential reading because it contains stage maps and timetables, without which you will see nowt to-night!

But back to the rally, Scrutineering opened for business at Tobermory Distillery where first through was Tony Bardy who has hired a Steve Petch Hyundai WRC machine in place of his Nissan. “It’s an early 50th birthday present to meself” said Tony – about one year early I thought.

John Swinscoe’s Lancer EVO9 looked mean. He brought it in direct from Japan and started prepping it on the 11th of September. Mark Jasper sounds as though he’s well prepared. He and Don Whyatt (2nd time at Mull) drive the stage once to make the Notes and then drove them once to check them! The Metro looks well after its ‘bump’ on Ulster: “I was leading at the time,” said Mark, “and doing 100 and something, then we went off!”

When asked why he had such a huge airbox on top of the Metro V6, John Price said: “It needs a lot of air!” Still, it’s cheaper than petrol I suppose. Next up was the MINI triplets of Daniel Harper, John Cressey and Ian Dawes. The cars have around 270 hp and 6 speed gearboxes built by Minisport. Daniel and John’s cars are the same as last year but Ian and Gary Dawes have forfeited their Astra in favour of the MINI. According to Daniel it’s a “2 Dawes model” (Think about it!).

Ian Colman appeared in his facelifted Nissan. He put it into Tony Bardy’s place for a checkup and they moved the intercooler from the top of the engine to low down at the front. More efficient, but more exposed!

Dave Thwaites has got a new 2.4 Duratec in the MkII in place of the 2 litre Vauxhall. It’s got more power and more torque and a big Atlas, with big diff and big shafts … Chris Tooze is hoping for a better run out on Mull than he had in Ulster. The Corsa shed a wheel 2 miles into the 1st stage … Eddie O’Donnell came through Scrutineering with clean hands! The car has actually been ready since June when he went to do the Donegal, only he didn’t. The cylinder head went porous and he had to withdraw his entry so all he had to do was get the engine rebuilt for Mull … Duggie Ingram’s Mini looks a bit of a handful with its Jack Knight 16 valve head and throttle bodies … and John Rintoul has new glasses, now he’ll actually see what he’s been missing over here all these years! … Dave Taylor is a lucky starter. He got his car pinched out of the garage on Tuesday after thieves played bumper cars with 8 other showroom vehicles to get it out. But it ran out of fuel after 4 miles and the thieves couldn’t get fuel into the WRC spec filler. A lady jogger spotted it behind a hedge and phoned Easson’s garage so they got it back … not so lucky is Billy Bird, the Lancer put a rod through the block last night … Ian Grubb had a fright last night too when the Lancer’s brake pedal went to the floor but an overnight master cylinder change had him back in action this morning.

We didn’t see Neil MacKinnon this morning but we saw his car – he was still in bed, but sone Paul was there with Emma McKinstry’s Lancer. The car is up for sale, but the MacKinnons did a deal with Kenny for two cars on Mull this year. And local hero Calum Duffy was there too. He’s got a new engine in the car. He did Crail late last year and did the Sperrins Rally in Ireland a few months back where he finished 16th overall and 2nd in class so he should be match fit for this weekend.

It was also good to see Dutchman Lex Koevoet back again. He marshalled for the first time on Mull last year and was so taken he’s back for more. He will be marshalling at Ardtun with the BMRMC whose stage starter is none other than Vanessa Bott who is the Chief Start Marshal at Oulton Park. Apparently Oulton Park does a bit in motor sport too!

And finally, Mull does strange things to folk when they first visit and then keep coming back, but few stranger than this. Granite City Clerk of the Course, Gerry Potter and Entries Secretary Rae Osborne got married in Tobermory registry office yesterday morning at 11.00 am witnessed by Doug Weir and Stevie Brown and photographed for posterity by Iain Robertson. Gerry said they did it quietly to save a lot of fuss (I reckon he was saving money!) but if you see a car out there to-night on marshalling duty with steamed up windows, just be careful, it might be the newlyweds! Congratulations from all of us to all of youse.

And finally, finally, the Polis have one of them new fangled see-far-away radar guns that can spot a speeding motorist at a mile! So be careful and be sensible. And if you hear a siren and see flashing lights just ahead of the rally to-night that could be Bulletin Bill with the MullMurmurs, so look out and be ready!

Yer auld pal, Jaggy Bunnet, Tobermory, Noon, Friday