The 2300 Club’s annual Tour of Mull Rally – which we annually insist sees F1 out of sight for sport, skills, risk, excitement and the pendulum of success – is weaving its way round a special stage just now.

The event – which is a serious annual contributor to the local economy:

• doubles the population of the island for the weekend it takes place;
• is watched by around 3,000 spectators for its mainly night-time stages;
• provides an annual challenge for young drivers from the island – a real lifestyle plus;
• puts and keeps the island on the tourist map.

This year the event hit a small pocket of local resistance from people upset by the inconvenience to their daily lives of roads closed for certain periods.

There was a specific incident on the Friday night this year, where cattle, said by the farmer who owned them to have been secured in their field, were found on the road, causing accidents and seeing one rally participant airlifted to hospital in Glasgow.

With another stage due to cover the same stretch of road on the Saturday, the Rally organisers consulted Mr McFadyen, the farmer in question, to discuss the securing of the animals. They were informed that he would be making exactly the same arrangements to secure his stock as he had done on the previous day.

Since these arrangements had not proved secure first time around, the Rally officials could not take the risk of serious accidents should the animals stray for a second time – so the stage had to be cancelled.

There was – and has been – talk of sabotage but it is hard to envisage anyone prepared to endanger the lives of their own stock and to put at serious risk the lives of sportsmen visiting the island. The drivers come prepared for the already high risks of rallying but not for the added hazard of large farm animals strolling the narrow roads in the dark.

It is unthinkable that any sensible and responsible human being would enable such hazards deliberately.

It is, though, important for the island and for the future of this major and commercially worthwhile event, that everyone understands the need for the guaranteed removal of avoidable risks of all kinds. Otherwise the Rally – for 40 years a feature of island life – cannot be staged there again.

The rally organisers know that there is a nuisance value in the event.For the weekend it runs, people cannot go about their normal routines exactly as they usually do. The 2300 Club do, though, organise the rally to limit that disruption and they created a fund to compensate farmers for the time they spend in moving livestock away from the roads involved in the various stages.

Roads are closed – an Act of Parliament makes this legal – but they are closed only for specific hours. Moreover, to minimise the inconvenience, most of the rally stages take place at night.

The most certain proof possible of the almost universal support for the rally on the island came this year.

The Tour reinstated the long-absent Tobermory stage – and held it on the opening night of this 40th anniversary rally. They consulted the town thoroughly and well in advance. There was not a single objection.

What was involved? Well, something of a clearance of the town. All parked cars had to be moved away. The roads were closed. The noise of revs, tyre squeal and brakes resonated. But, to repeat – there was not one objection to a major upheaval like this.

The town entered the spirit of the event, responding to the adrenaline of this exotic bird of passage. And the town had the common sense to realise that the benefits of the circus – once a year – far outweigh the disruption.

This year too, this 40th anniversary Rally, was won imperiously by the Duffy brothers from Dervaig on Mull. They weren’t the only Mull competitors but they saw off all comers. Here is another benefit of the event – giving Mull’s young folk – who have what it takes to carry their weight in this highly skilled and unpredictable sport, a chance to assert their superiority against all comers.

Rallying is an exciting sport and a great sport, unspoiled by the commercialism and uncontaminated by the corruption of F1. Even armchair spectators can warm to the uncomfortable, dangerous and hands-on effort – and luck – it takes to come out top in an event of this kind.

It is unequivocally great for Mull and great for Argyll to host this annual demonstration of skills, thrills, reaction times and misfortune.

And, as Neil Molyneux from the 2300 Club which runs the event, says: ‘We do it for fun’. This is not like Bernie Ecclestone, dictating terms to allow his organisation to make unimaginable amounts of money. F1 has lumbered what was once a sport with ever more arcane rules to create synthetic interest amongst those who know nothing about it but who like to be seen strolling the grid. Rallying rocks.

The 2300 Club is devoted to the sport. That’s why they’re there. They deliver a great event – and, more than any in our experience, they get the results of the stages up on their website faster than you’d believe. They understand that people who can’t be there hunger for the information.

There cannot be any doubt that Mull wants the event as much as it needs it. This is one of those blips – like losing the back end on a bad corner but getting  straightened up  in good time. And let’s be clear, it’s Mull that needs to come out of this corner in good order.

Related Posts

• Mull does self-mutilation: 2010 Tour of Mull Rally lost (125)
• Event saboteurs exist beyond Mull (1)
• 40th Tour of Mull Rally (0)
• Mull to reflect on cancellation of 2010 Tour of Mull Rally (0)
• Jim Mather welcomes outcome of Mull meeting on loss of 2010 Tour of Mull rally (6)

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