Paul MacKinnon, son of 12 times winner Neil MacKinnon, has won the 2008 Tunnock's Tour of Mull, with Daniel Barritt (co-driver for Neil last year) sat alongside him reading pace notes and providing support and guidance
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MullMurmurs – Chapter 10
Results after 17 (of 17 Stages)1 P MacKinnon/D Barritt (Subaru Impreza) 2h 17m 17s
2 C Duffy/I Duffy (Ford Escort MkII) 2h 17m 26s
3 W Bonniwell/K Rae (Subaru Impreza) 2h 24m 18s
4 J MacGillivray/I Frazer (Ford Escort MkII) 2h 25m 18s
5 T Pye/K Riddick (Subaru Impreza) 2h 26m 24s
6 K Hall/R Millener (Ford Fiesta) 2h 26m 45s
7 T Bardy/R Smith (Nissan Sunny GTI-R) 2h 26m 53s
8 D Miller/A Bailey (Subaru Impreza) 2h 30m 37s
9 T Sherrington/S Bould (Mitsubishi Lancer) 2h 32m 00s
10 W Sisson/D Stone (Mitsubishi Lancer) 2h 32m 29s
Did you notice? There were no shooting stars over Mull last night. Nope, they were all at ground level. That was one of the most compelling duels we have seen on this island in many a year. If folk ever ask you what makes the Tunnock’s Tour of Mull ‘the best rally in the world’, just tell them about last night.
Going into the final Leg of 5 stages, ‘MacKinnon The Younger’ and Daniel Barritt had 25 seconds in hand over Calum and Iain Duffy. There were 56 miles of stages in that final group. For Calum, that meant less than half a second a mile to make up. No problem, eh? Let battle commence. And what a fight that turned out to be.
MacKinnon’s yellow Subaru was like a comet, blazing a path up Loch Tuath and round Calgary Bay. He stopped the clocks 22 seconds sooner than his Dad did 2 years ago. A new record. Then came Calum, the comet scorching its own line over the tarmac. He broke the record too, but by ‘only’ 14 seconds.
Mishnish Lochs did neither of them any favours. According to James MacGillivray, “that was just about the slippiest stage he had ever driven”. No records, but MacKinnon took another 7 seconds out of a disconsolate Duffy. “My tyres are like jelly” said Calum, “I was hoping for more grip when it was colder.”
The gap was now 40 seconds with 3 stages to go. Now, sensible folks like you and me might have left it at that, but note the use of the word ‘sensible’ here. Calum took 5 back from Paul on Loch Scridain. Paul equalled the record on Gribun and took 3 back from Calum. There were now 38 seconds between them and 14 miles of tarmac, which was originally laid down by a drunk, dribbling asphalt out of the back end of a tipper, while driving over what became the Hill Road and down Glen Bellart. That isn’t a road, it’s wishful thinking.
Surely not? Well those two went at it like a pair of ferocious Scottish midgies wanting a big bite out of the same fat bloke. And then it happened. A patch of mud on the road, locked up brakes, and off. Disaster. It was all over. Maybe. Paul locked the diffs and managed to reverse out, but Calum’s lights were only too visible and catching. “That was some trip down the last 10 miles of the Glen, I’ll tell you,” said Paul, “the bumper was hanging off it, I don’t know what else might have been wrong, but I just had to go for it.” And go he did.
At the finish, Calum said, “He drove well, you can’t take that away from him.” So how hard was Calum trying? He pointed to his rear tyres. The whole tread moulding was starting to separate from the tyre casing. You could put your fingers in the gaps.
By comparison, the pace of Willie Bonniwell, James MacGillivray and Tristan Pye was almost sedate in 3rd, 4th and 5th, but for ‘drive of the rally’, what about young Kris Hall in 6th place? I almost felt sorry for that poor wee Ford Fiesta. Tony Bardy, David Miller, Tugs Sherrington and Wayne Sisson rounded off the top ten but what of the others?
John Cope was in the hunt for top honours till that last mad dash across the island last night, and he too fell victim to a patch of gravel, but unlike MacKinnon, there was no way out. Daniel Harper too was in the hunt for honours, but clipped a rock in Gribun and almost tore the wheel off. Eddie O’Donnell finished the rally with bits of his brother-in-law’s gearbox inside his own, but that prompts the question, does his brother in law know? He does now! Dougi Hall parked the Lancer in a ditch and Paul Kirtley blew an exhaust manifold. Denis Biggerstaff had punctures and serious brake problems and John Swinscoe had to stop in stage and change a puncture too.
John Cressey broke a gearbox, although he tried to blame his navigator Stan Quirk, “He stutters a lot for a co-driver!”
In the classes, Iain ‘Ogg’ MacKenzie’s 11th place overall was stunning too for a wee Peugeot 106, but who knows where he might have finished if not for his co-driving Dad “He would have gone quicker – if I had let him!” Second in class B was the equally impressive John MacCrone in 13th place overall and if that is not testament to the value of the Bear Cubs and Steve Davies then I don’t know what is. Gaun yersel boys. In the 1400 class, Alan Mclaughlin in the Ford Puma took the honours from Donald Brown in the Suzuki Swift engined Sunbeam.
And so as the 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally draws to a formal close we must once again thank all of the guid fowks of Mull for their patience and hospitality during this annual invasion of nutters, speed freaks and rally fanatics. Our marshals too are wonderful people. Without them there wouldn’t be a rally. The Cooncil too, as ever, have been supportive and helpful and thanks too, to John K Philips for the loan of their truck to bring the rally to Mull. As ever, the Polis were efficient and very busy, perhaps too busy at times. And our grateful thanks to, to Tunnock’s for their own tastebud tickling, carameliciously scrumptious contributions to the Scottish diet. It’s what makes our weather bearable!
And you know what? One of the best bits of the rally? At the rally finish in the early hours of Sunday morning, we all got a Tunnock’s Scotch Pie. By Goad it wiz fierce. A hot best-mutton pie is just the thing to set the seal on a perfect event, just don’t tell the wife I had a pie. She’ll kill me.
Oh, and by the way, don’t be fooled for a minute thinking that was a full moon last night. Nope, somebody was up there with a big torch taking an interest in everything we were up to down here. Thanks Brian, from all of us.
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Sunday, 12 Noon, Tobermory
This is a booklet with the complete set of results from the 2008 Tunnock's Tour of Mull. Please click on the link below to download the file: Complete Results Booklet This file is an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file. If you can't open the file, you may need to download and […]
This is the Trophy Rally results from the 2008 Tunnock's Tour of Mull. If you would like a copy for prining out, please click on the link below to download the file:
Trophy Rally Results for Printing
 | This file is an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file. If you can't open the file, you may need to download and install the free of charge Adobe Acrobat Reader. This can be obtained from Adobe by clicking HERE. |
This is the Team results from the 2008 Tunnock's Tour of Mull. If you would like a copy for printing out, please click on the link below to download the file: Team Results for Printing
| This file is an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file. If you can't open the file, you may need to download and install the free of charge Adobe Acrobat Reader. This can be obtained from Adobe by clicking HERE. |
This is the Full Stage Time Listing from the 2008 Tunnock's Tour of Mull. If you would like a copy for printing out, please click on the link below to download the file: Full Stage Time Listing for Printing
| This file is an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file. If you can't open the file, you may need to download and install the free of charge Adobe Acrobat Reader. This can be obtained from Adobe by clicking HERE. |
This is the Final Results from the 2008 Tunnock's Tour of Mull. If you would like a copy for printing out, please click on the link below to download the file: Final Results for Printing
| This file is an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file. If you can't open the file, you may need to download and install the free of charge Adobe Acrobat Reader. This can be obtained from Adobe by clicking HERE. |
MullMurmurs – Chapter 9
( Provisional ) Leaderboard after 14 (of 17 Stages)
1 P MacKinnon/D Barritt (Subaru Impreza) 1h 54m 09s
2 C Duffy/I Duffy (Ford Escort MkII) 1h 54m 49s
3 W Bonniwell/K Rae (Subaru Impreza) 2h 00m 17s
4 J MacGillivray/I Frazer (Ford Escort MkII) 2h 00m 50s
As the 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally enters the closing stages all eyes are on the battle at the front. Both Paul MacKinnon and Calum Duffy broke the record on the first stage of the night, the 22 mile Tuath/Calgary blast up the west coast. Paul was 20 secs under his ol’man’s record and Calum was 12 under. By the finish Psaul had no brakes and Calum was struggling for grip even in the near freezing temperatures and his hot rubber.
But it looks as though John Cope’s challenge has come to grief at Torloisk. The Subaru slid off on loose gravel across the road. So how slippy is it? James MacGillivray reckons “Mishnish was about the slippiest stage he had ever driven.” Willie Bonniwell had a fright at the Salen start when the car wouldn’t start and he had 3 minutes to change the plugs. Worse was Daniel Harper, the gear linkage broke on the start of the long one and he lost 2 mins stage fixing it. Tristan Pye smashed his bottoms lights when the Subaru landed nose first after a vicious jump and Kris Hall lost 45 seconds with a front puncture.
Denis Biggerstaff was climbing back up the leaderboard after his double puncture on the first stage, but Ireland’s finest is struggling again. The Subaru is fast running out of brake pads due to a problem with the calipers binding on. Eddie O’Donnell has been slipping back this afternoon. He lost power at one stage when the starter motor battery strap snapped and then later started losing gears in his gearbox. As ever, the enterprising Eddie was off home to borrow bits from a relative’s gearbox to repair his own to make sure he re-starts tonight. Young John MacCrone nearly threw away his 2nd in 1600 class this afternoon when he slid off on Mishnish, but he survived. Paul Miller was in trouble too, he had lost third gear and just as important, he had lost reverse gear! The box was getting noisier by the mile, but he is determined to carry on as far as it will take him. And ‘Fuey the Fireman’ is still going despite having to replace the gearbox and the throttle linkage in the Escort he borrowed from Iain Gardiner. Fuey is better known as Ian Noble, the Automotive Technician (you can’t call him a mechanic these days) who works in that beacon of industrial activity, MacKay’s Garage in Tobermory.
Jaggy met Freddy. No it’s not the name of a new horror flick. Freddy Ferodo is the team mascot of Chris Shield running at car 140. It’s a wee dug wearing clothes and has three ‘minders’, Emma, Ann-Marie and Jess who take this wee dug everywhere and wave it at the rally cars and take photos of it in different situations. Mad? Yes, but good fun, and Jaggy asked Freddy for his ‘pawtograph’ – think about it. Oh, please yourself!
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Saturday, 11.00 pm, Tobermory
1 P MacKinnon/D Barritt (Subaru Impreza) 1h 54m 09s
2 C Duffy/I Duffy (Ford Escort MkII) 1h 54m 49s
3 W Bonniwell/K Rae (Subaru Impreza) 2h 00m 17s
4 J MacGillivray/I Frazer (Ford Escort MkII) 2h 00m 50s
As the 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally enters the closing stages all eyes are on the battle at the front. Both Paul MacKinnon and Calum Duffy broke the record on the first stage of the night, the 22 mile Tuath/Calgary blast up the west coast. Paul was 20 secs under his ol’man’s record and Calum was 12 under. By the finish Psaul had no brakes and Calum was struggling for grip even in the near freezing temperatures and his hot rubber.
But it looks as though John Cope’s challenge has come to grief at Torloisk. The Subaru slid off on loose gravel across the road. So how slippy is it? James MacGillivray reckons “Mishnish was about the slippiest stage he had ever driven.” Willie Bonniwell had a fright at the Salen start when the car wouldn’t start and he had 3 minutes to change the plugs. Worse was Daniel Harper, the gear linkage broke on the start of the long one and he lost 2 mins stage fixing it. Tristan Pye smashed his bottoms lights when the Subaru landed nose first after a vicious jump and Kris Hall lost 45 seconds with a front puncture.
Denis Biggerstaff was climbing back up the leaderboard after his double puncture on the first stage, but Ireland’s finest is struggling again. The Subaru is fast running out of brake pads due to a problem with the calipers binding on. Eddie O’Donnell has been slipping back this afternoon. He lost power at one stage when the starter motor battery strap snapped and then later started losing gears in his gearbox. As ever, the enterprising Eddie was off home to borrow bits from a relative’s gearbox to repair his own to make sure he re-starts tonight. Young John MacCrone nearly threw away his 2nd in 1600 class this afternoon when he slid off on Mishnish, but he survived. Paul Miller was in trouble too, he had lost third gear and just as important, he had lost reverse gear! The box was getting noisier by the mile, but he is determined to carry on as far as it will take him. And ‘Fuey the Fireman’ is still going despite having to replace the gearbox and the throttle linkage in the Escort he borrowed from Iain Gardiner. Fuey is better known as Ian Noble, the Automotive Technician (you can’t call him a mechanic these days) who works in that beacon of industrial activity, MacKay’s Garage in Tobermory.
Jaggy met Freddy. No it’s not the name of a new horror flick. Freddy Ferodo is the team mascot of Chris Shield running at car 140. It’s a wee dug wearing clothes and has three ‘minders’, Emma, Ann-Marie and Jess who take this wee dug everywhere and wave it at the rally cars and take photos of it in different situations. Mad? Yes, but good fun, and Jaggy asked Freddy for his ‘pawtograph’ – think about it. Oh, please yourself!
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Saturday, 11.00 pm, Tobermory
This is the Interim Results, Saturday Afternoon from the 2008 Tunnock's Tour of Mull. If you would like a copy for printing out, please click on the link below to download the file: Interim Results, Saturday Afternoon for Printing
| This file is an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file. If you can't open the file, you may need to download and install the free of charge Adobe Acrobat Reader. This can be obtained from Adobe by clicking HERE. |
MullMurmurs – Chapter 8
( Provisional ) Leaderboard after 12 (of 17 Stages)
1 P MacKinnon/D Barritt (Subaru Impreza) 1h 27m 24s
2 C Duffy/I Duffy (Ford Escort MkII) 1h 27m 49s
3 W Bonniwell/K Rae (Subaru Impreza) 1h 32m 01s
4 J MacGillivray/I Frazer (Ford Escort MkII) 1h 32m 10s
5 J Cope/R Fagg (Subaru Impreza) 1h 32m 19s
6 D Harper/C Campbell (BMW MINI) 1h 32m 41s
7 K Hall/R Millener (Ford Fiesta) 1h 33m 22s
8 T Pye/K Riddick (Subaru Impreza) 1h 33m 32s
9 T Bardy/R Smith (Nissan Sunny GTI-R) 1h 34m 03s
10 D Miller/A Bailey (Subaru Impreza) 1h 34m 59s
As ever, the 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally will be decided on the final Leg tonight. Those who lost out in the dark last night made up for it in the daylight this afternoon, but there time will come later if they don’t rise to the challenge.
And looking as though he did this all the time, ‘MacKinnon The Younger’ is doing the business at the head of the field. But there can be no rest for the rally leader, there is a clear and present danger in his rear view mirror. If Calum’s Escort can stop cooking its rear tyres, then we’ll be in for a fight tonight. For his part, James MacGillivray was looking as cool as ever earlier this afternoon although Willie Bonniwell took time out of him over the final two tests, but James was still holding off a determined John Cope. These three are waging a private battle of their own, but that damned MINI hasn’t given up on a podium placing yet either. Daniel Harper lost out to them earlier but he has all his sparks back now!
Doug Weir is out, the Escort broke its propshaft in Calgary, but not before he took a second out of his son Stevie Brown in the previous stage. Stevie says “He won’t let me forget that now and can always say he was quicker before he went out!” Grum Willcock says “I always seem to go backwards in daylight, when the big boys start getting quicker, but I’ll get them all back tonight.” John Morrison stalled it on the start line of Calgary “Oh, b*gg*r” he said, or words to that effect. John Marshall is going better, no punctures this afternoon and Cameron McLean left his exhaust in Calgary, and left rubber on a Dervaig hairpin when he overshot. After running a Nova for years, Angus Mathieson is finding the switch to an Impreza a bit of a culture shock but revelling inn the grip and the power. Jim McKenna says he’s taking it easy, he’s had two re-shell jobs recently and he’s running out of Starlet shells in Ireland. A bolt came out of Paul Daniel’s steering rack on Mishnish. “Good job I didn’t know at the time or I would have crawled through there” he said. Grant Fleming is looking quite pleased with himself after his Scrutineering day embarrassment “I haven’t been as high as this since ’75” said the 23rd o/a runner. But then Fleming is under serious pressure. His eventual overall position will determine just how generous his sponsor is to him for the rest of the year, and since that sponsor is Tunnock’s Bakery, he could starve before the year is out if he doesn’t do well! Points make prizes as they say, or in this case, points make teacakes. Allan Mackay is getting serious, he’s changed the Inters for slicks – and he’s just heard it’s raining down the south end of the island. John Woodward had cause to be thankful for spectators – when they pushed him out of the shrubbery after a straight-on in Mishnish and Matthew Tarbutt is struggling a bit, the 1400 class front runner is having problems with his carburettors.
And so to the final five tests. Man and machine versus time and distance, but there’s a little more to it than that. The magical extra ingredient – Mull itself. The island roads always have a twist in their tale and this year is no exception. 13 miles up the Hill Road and down Glen Bellart. There’ll be demons in dark places tonight – remember last year?
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Saturday, 5.30 pm, Tobermory
1 P MacKinnon/D Barritt (Subaru Impreza) 1h 27m 24s
2 C Duffy/I Duffy (Ford Escort MkII) 1h 27m 49s
3 W Bonniwell/K Rae (Subaru Impreza) 1h 32m 01s
4 J MacGillivray/I Frazer (Ford Escort MkII) 1h 32m 10s
5 J Cope/R Fagg (Subaru Impreza) 1h 32m 19s
6 D Harper/C Campbell (BMW MINI) 1h 32m 41s
7 K Hall/R Millener (Ford Fiesta) 1h 33m 22s
8 T Pye/K Riddick (Subaru Impreza) 1h 33m 32s
9 T Bardy/R Smith (Nissan Sunny GTI-R) 1h 34m 03s
10 D Miller/A Bailey (Subaru Impreza) 1h 34m 59s
As ever, the 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull Rally will be decided on the final Leg tonight. Those who lost out in the dark last night made up for it in the daylight this afternoon, but there time will come later if they don’t rise to the challenge.
And looking as though he did this all the time, ‘MacKinnon The Younger’ is doing the business at the head of the field. But there can be no rest for the rally leader, there is a clear and present danger in his rear view mirror. If Calum’s Escort can stop cooking its rear tyres, then we’ll be in for a fight tonight. For his part, James MacGillivray was looking as cool as ever earlier this afternoon although Willie Bonniwell took time out of him over the final two tests, but James was still holding off a determined John Cope. These three are waging a private battle of their own, but that damned MINI hasn’t given up on a podium placing yet either. Daniel Harper lost out to them earlier but he has all his sparks back now!
Doug Weir is out, the Escort broke its propshaft in Calgary, but not before he took a second out of his son Stevie Brown in the previous stage. Stevie says “He won’t let me forget that now and can always say he was quicker before he went out!” Grum Willcock says “I always seem to go backwards in daylight, when the big boys start getting quicker, but I’ll get them all back tonight.” John Morrison stalled it on the start line of Calgary “Oh, b*gg*r” he said, or words to that effect. John Marshall is going better, no punctures this afternoon and Cameron McLean left his exhaust in Calgary, and left rubber on a Dervaig hairpin when he overshot. After running a Nova for years, Angus Mathieson is finding the switch to an Impreza a bit of a culture shock but revelling inn the grip and the power. Jim McKenna says he’s taking it easy, he’s had two re-shell jobs recently and he’s running out of Starlet shells in Ireland. A bolt came out of Paul Daniel’s steering rack on Mishnish. “Good job I didn’t know at the time or I would have crawled through there” he said. Grant Fleming is looking quite pleased with himself after his Scrutineering day embarrassment “I haven’t been as high as this since ’75” said the 23rd o/a runner. But then Fleming is under serious pressure. His eventual overall position will determine just how generous his sponsor is to him for the rest of the year, and since that sponsor is Tunnock’s Bakery, he could starve before the year is out if he doesn’t do well! Points make prizes as they say, or in this case, points make teacakes. Allan Mackay is getting serious, he’s changed the Inters for slicks – and he’s just heard it’s raining down the south end of the island. John Woodward had cause to be thankful for spectators – when they pushed him out of the shrubbery after a straight-on in Mishnish and Matthew Tarbutt is struggling a bit, the 1400 class front runner is having problems with his carburettors.
And so to the final five tests. Man and machine versus time and distance, but there’s a little more to it than that. The magical extra ingredient – Mull itself. The island roads always have a twist in their tale and this year is no exception. 13 miles up the Hill Road and down Glen Bellart. There’ll be demons in dark places tonight – remember last year?
Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Saturday, 5.30 pm, Tobermory