Well it’s that time of year again – the time when you are not too sure of the weather and when a wee bit of snow on the hills is likely. School Holidays are here – look what the herd are doing and do the opposite! Mull and Iona it is then, as opposed to Alicante’ or the Canaries.
Where else can a drive to the ferry supply spotting an otter, a bird of prey which we are still trying to identify (but not a tourist Eagle – the Buzzard), and a small herd of red deer who looked shocked that we had arrived on their piece of tarmac just to the west of Pennygael stores where we pit stopped for sweeties. The stag escorted his ladies back on to the brown ground and left the grey grun to us.
When your island has resonated to the sound of over a hundred rally cars seeing how quick they can do the tourist routes of Gribun, Bunessan and Calgary bay, only the bravest of stags would venture below a thousand feet, you might imagine. But the lack of growth in Hebridean October at that altitude is the antidote to the fear of the bark of a Ford BDA and the square four Subaru.
What a sight to behold – what a pleasure to the ears and to the nostrils too – the rut had begun!
Tunnocks Tour of Mull time was here.
Now the detailed folk will point out that rutting is an animal pleasure and that Touring Mull in the rallying sense finished two years ago when the 2300 car club of Blackburn handed over the reins, with little ceremony, to the Mull car club. Not so. The Mull Rally as it became known in its new guise does not have the ring about it that the Tour of Mull Rally did. Because the reason is that The Tour of Mull is a rally which evokes a feeling, something akin to, the aura of Monte’ Carlo rally in some folk’s mind’s eye. The Mull Rally moniker is understated and maybe that’s what the organisers needed for a year or two after taking the majestic event on last October. But the Tour of Mull Rally is the best rally in the world – agreed? Agreed! Then and now.
And the format this year’s rally underlined that, with 20 to 25 mile stages on closed single track roads as its crown – and with wee gems, that had never, or rarely been contested, added for diamonds round the edges – this was, all in but name, “The Tour of Mull Rally.” Well done Mull Car Club.
The late Brian Molyneux, who wrote the book on the Tour of Mull Rally – literally, would have been looking down kindly on us at the weekend The rally is in very good hands he will muse as he lights his pipe. The doyen of motorsport journalism, Jaggy Bunnet, writing in his Mull Murmurs’ rally bulletins often swore he could detect the fine aroma of his pipe smoke in the glens after Brian’s death. Brian Molyneux book tells the story of a dream he had in the mid sixties during a family holiday to the isle of Mull of bringing a rally to the island as the roads were made for it. If God had been resting on the seventh day and suddenly remembered he needed a tarmac rally he would have lain back again, content that someone will notice the hill road and Glen Aros on Mull and say to themselves “oh He did not forget ..” because they are most certainly made in heaven.
The book, it is modestly titled “The Best Rally In The World”, was written by Brian Molyneux and is available from his son, Neil Molyneux at Walker’s Castle, Hurst Green, Clitheroe, LANCS, . The price is £10. Pop it on your Christmas list – all bookshelves should have it.
The rally I say but what of the rally cars, dear reader? Thought you would never ask!
It was a stacked up to be a memorable event – 118 cars ready or not. Last year’s winner, Calum Duffy at the head of the field, flagged away by rally sponsor, Boyd Tunnock of the Tunnocks teacakes and caramel wafers fame – one of Scotland’s national treasures and enjoying every minute of it.
Normally the dignitaries turn up and wave away ten or twenty cars and then dive for warmth thereafter – not Mr Tunnock! He was still there when I set off to be in Craignure before the rally cars arrived. What a guy. Legend.
Paul MacKinnon was the competition for Mr Duffy. A Subaru Impreza WRC vs. Ford Escort Mk 2. David vs. Goliath. Well not really that. The David and Goliath thing was when Paul’s dad Neil was the King of the Hill having won so many times and Calum was the young upstart from Dervaig. Now the contenders are the same age, have similar skills and have near equal machinery. Well nearly…four wheel drive v two, certainly makes it advantage Mackinnon especially if it’s wet. But that is, as yet, only a rumour from the south of the island – the Mishnish lochs and The Hill road are dry. Stage set – let battle commence!
▪ Stage one – to Duffy in the Escort. Tobermory to Dervaig is six and a half miles, give or take, of twisty single track road, by a loch or two, uphill and down glen type of road – 15 minutes in the Rover on a good day with not to many stops for visitors and I am happy. Duffy? 6 minutes and 27 seconds – in the dark! A mile a minute or average – average 60mph!
▪ Stage two – to MacKinnon in the Subaru. The Hill road and Loch Tuath – ditto the latter description with bells on! Fourteen and a half miles of heather and Heilan coo territory (cows are away on holiday for safety) in….interlude for fanfare ….12 mins, 30 secs – Twelve minutes and thirty seconds! This is amazing stuff – on stage one Duffy is a second a mile quicker only. On stage 2 MacKinnon is 1 second a mile faster than Duffy – it is punch for punch as this rut begins and the stags are horns locked at the front of the field. What next..?
▪ Stage 3 – Bunessan – 1.61 miles –Duffy (3rd) from MacKinnon (35th) by 13seconds.
▪ Stage 4 – Bunessan 2 – 1.61 miles – MacKinnon (50th) from Duffy (82nd) Gap? Its 19 seconds.
▪ Stage 5 – Ardtun – 2.72 miles Advantage MacKinnon (1st) by 6 seconds.
▪ Stage 6 – Ardtun2 – 2.72 miles Again MacKinnon is first and fastest – this time by 9 seconds.
Mmm …how is this explained?
These are new and short stages – some will say Mickey Mouse stages (all colour and noise with little substance!) for the casual spectator. In those stages you cannot win a rally – but one slip and you can certainly loose a rally. So both are careful.
Special stage 7 & 8 – Duffy sets no time and MacKinnon wins it! Duffy is out on the next stage with a broken gearbox. It is all over as a contest for 1st as the man behind is now a minute and a half shy.
So when I arrive at Dervaig to get a look at the cars in action and commentate for Oban Fm – it is a discouraged crowd I meet. The crossroads at Dervaig is a popular spot and is the centre of the Duffy fan base. Here the roads from Torloisk/ Calgary and Salen and Tobermory come together and it is usually party central. Not tonight – numbers are down in the churchyard that provides a great amphitheatre and only when one or two cars get over enthusiastic and spin do they get vocal.
Saturday dawns grey …then gets wet but the picnic calls. It has become traditional for me to go off foraging and collect some nice food for an afternoon at the spectator stuff in the North West of Mull.
It’s great! Fresh air, a good spot, the camera at the ready and no reporting for Oban Fm till tonight – magic indeed.
John Cope lies 2nd, one in front of McGillivray in his Subaru and will maintain a three minute gap while the Highland Bull breeder from Pennygown on Mull drops to nearly six minutes behind. However God loves a tryer on His special stages and we love to see the cars at full chat in daylight. On the Mishnish Lochs we are not disappointed. McGillivray, Cope and Mackinnon were immense. Fast neat and very entertaining indeed. But that was it for Cope – car stopped on the last stage of the afternoon. Input shaft gone! James McGillivray is now really the only competition left for MacKinnon and even at his most optimistic is hard pressed to be convincing when he offers that he could creep up on the leader.
By the end of the stage 16 the first of the final four – it was now nearly eight minutes of a gap. It would have been well over eight minutes but the final drama was to come. Final stage – 22 miles over Loch Tuath and Calgary. MacKinnon is in trouble. His car was down to 3 cylinders and it might stop at any moment. He takes up the story.
“I thought it was all over and I wouldn’t be able to get to the end. She was struggling to pull more than 2000rpm but it kept going.” Struggle on he did and the gap narrowed by two minutes. But now it’s one – one. Duffy won last year Mackinnon memorably this.
Daniel Harper in the BMW Mini pipped Tristan Pye’s Subaru for Third- on the final stage. A big cheer for Eddie O’Donnell from Salen – fifth place in the Mark 2 Escort! Eddie sometimes is more than the measure of his equipment – but this year they matched qualities and we were all so pleased for him and Alan MacDougall from Oban who bravely navigated this year. The Top ten was rounded off by Ian and Angus “Ogg” Mackenzie from Dervaig in the Ford Fiesta ST.
Stewart Morrison from Oban also got a great finish in his beautifully prepared Escort Mark 2 – 21st place is a real achievement on this hard rally. Just 52 made it home of nearly 120 starters. And Mrs Brown’s boy Alec from Tobermory came home 51st – she will be so pleased!
So there we are another Mull is over – roll on next year and the Tunnocks Tour of Mull Rally 2012.
Cameron Campbell, Motor Sport Editor
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