Johnnie Mackay starting round 2 in a confident mood

It’s round two of the Scottish Rally Championship this weekend, and Johnnie Mackay will start the Speyside Stages in confident mood.
The reigning John Easson Award winner has been buoyed by an excellent second place finish on last month’s Memorial Garden Stages at RM Condor.
That result went some way to making up for the disappointment of an early retirement on the Snowman Rally.
And it also gave the highly-rated Mackay valuable seat time in his new Mitsubishi Evo7.
“I feel much more comfortable with it, and it feels like ‘my car’ now,” said Johnnie.
“The Speyside has an unusual format with two night forest stages on Friday night, then nine stages totalling 50 miles on Saturday.
“I’m looking forward to doing the two stages in the dark, which will be interesting as there are no markers, such as signposts, it’s just trees, trees and more trees!
“It’s reverse seeded as well, and as we are car 51, we’ll be one of the first four-wheel-drive cars going through, so there will be no lines to follow.
“The Saturday format of nine quick fire stages will be interesting and potentially difficult. Keeping up a good rhythm will be essential.
“I’ve only done the Speyside once before. I was in the Fiesta ST and it was the first time out in six months after I’d rolled it, so it will be a case of getting reacquainted with the roads again.”
The 2023 Speyside Stages looks set to be a classic, it’s the 25th anniversary of the event, organised by the 63 Car Club, which itself celebrates 60 years, and it’s the tenth year of sponsorship with McDonald & Munro.
Jock Armstrong and Hannah McKillop head the 108-car entry in their Subaru Impreza

Published October 10, 2008

2008 – Murmur Chapter 3

MullMurmurs – Chapter 3

( Provisional ) Leaderboard after 3 (of 17 Stages)

1 P MacKinnon/D Barritt (Subaru Impreza) 22m 35s
2 C Duffy/I Duffy (Ford Escort MkII) 23m 02s
3 D Harper/C Campbell (BMW MINI) 24m 01s
4 J MacGillivray/I Frazer (Ford Escort MkII) 24m 02s
5 J Cope/R Fagg (Subaru Impreza) 24m 16s
6 W Bonniwell/K Rae (Subaru Impreza) 24. 26s
7 T Pye/K Riddick (Subaru Impreza) 24m 37s
8 E O’Donnell/S Proud (Ford Escort MkII) 24m 44s
9 D Miller/A Bailey (Subaru Impreza) 24m 55s
10 Tugs Sherrington/S Bould (Mitsubishi Lancer) 25m 00s

The 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull is underway – with a vengeance. Top seed Neil MacKinnonn is out. The Subaru’s oil temperature soared on the first stage of the night and Neil pulled over till it cooled and then tried to carry on but was eventually forced to stop in the third stage and parked up. So it looks as though he’s out.

However, there is another MacKinnon setting the pace. Young Paul looks as though he’s had two fastest times out of 3 stages so far. But as for the rest, it’s business as usual. Callum Duffy had a big moment in Gribun, but he’s having trouble keeping tyres on the Exocet, it just wants to keep lighting them up! John Cope has had a “dreadful start to the rally – I don’t know whether it’s me or the car!” Paul Kirtley had a massive slide on the third stage to steady him up. He took it cautious on the first stage of the night – especially at the bit where he went off last year!
James MacGillivray is finding the rear end of the Escort too soft but hardened it up for the third test and that was better. Daniel Harper needs some fine tuning, the MINI rear wheels are grounding out on the arches.
Tony Bardy has been in 2WD mode since the first stage, it’s either a driveshaft or the centre diff but the Nissan is not a 4WD car at the moment. Wesley Patterson is finding the Scottish tarmac a bit of a handful: “that’s unreal out there!” Tristan Pye was off on the new tar in the first stage, but lost only about 15 seconds although co-driver Kirsty Riddick was more excited about seeing an otter crossing the road in front of them. She was really chuffed about that, that’s her first wild otter
sighting. Eddie O’Donnell is OK although John Swinscoe lost a turbo hose and lost power but is still going and Willie Bonniwell is behaving himself, although he still managed to have “a bit of a moment” on the new tar on the Hill Road.
Denis Biggerstaff and Dougi Hall both have slow times through the first stage but are still going.

So what’s it like out there? It’s dry, that’s the main thing, but the new tar laid down over recent weeks is proving to be very slippy. However, there is still standing water in places and its damp under the trees.

Please Note: In this and subsequent Bulletins, the times and positions shown are provisional pending confirmation from the organisers. These are field results gathered on the move.

Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Friday, 10.30 pm, Loch Scridain.

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