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Mull Murmur 10- published on the island, during the event by Jaggy Bunnet MULLMURMURS, Chapter 10 The 2002 Philips Tour of
Mull Rally - Final Results after SS20 (of 20) 1 Daniel Harper/Chris Campbell (Mitsubishi Lancer) 2 Hr 28 mins
13 secs It was a night to remember
and savour. In years to come when darkness falls and fires glow bright, rally
fans will huddle round glasses of memory retention fluid and recall the epic
deeds which were done in the name of their sport last night. The bare bones of
the story will relate that Daniel Harper and Chris Campbell won the 33rd
Philips Tour of Mull Rally. But behind that bland statistic lies a heroic tale
of high adventure and even higher speeds. Neil MacKinnon and Mike
Stayte finished second. “I lost it on Friday night,” says Neil, “Daniel
got his nose in front and I was struggling to catch up.” Even so, MacKinnon
was full of praise for the Subaru Impreza WRC: “It’s a helluva car but it
took me a while to get used to it. By the time I did, Daniel was up and gone,
full marks to him, he drove well.” Lest we forget, this was the
guy who finished 10th overall in a Mini just six years back and here
he was in a Mitsubishi Lancer with more engineering design input in its ash-tray
than the entire British Leyland device which preceded it. Surprisingly, it was
Daniel’s second run out in a four wheel drive machine – ever. Going into the final loop of
three stages, 17 seconds separated the top two and most folk would have put
money on MacKinnon to do the business. Chris Griffiths set the record on the 22
miles Loch Tuath/Calgary stage three years ago with 21m 01s. Last night
MacKinnon broke the record with a 20m 57s. Then Harper smashed it with 20m 43s.
MacKinnon knew then that he was in for one hell of a fight over the closing
stages and so it turned out. Earlier Harper had said he
was taking no risks. That all went out the window on the final three: “I took
a lot of risks in Scridain and Gribun,” said Daniel, “I had the biggest
moment of my life in that last one, we kind of lost the place on a couple of
Notes, and I thought we were gone!” After 150 miles of
timed-to-the-second lunacy over the island’s treacherously tortuous tarmac,
which ranged from streaming wet to merely dangerously slippy, the winning margin
was 26 seconds. If the pace of these two was
impressive, Callum Duffy’s was mesmerising. Even with no clutch on the final
night his flight down Glen Aros was unbelievable. According to co-driver Del:
“The shift light was on in sixth gear. Not just flashing, it was glowing!”
And this in a two wheel drive machine which was geared for 140 mph plus.
According to Del: “You know, when it’s flat out in sixth it goes very quiet
in the car”. I’ll bet. If it had been me you would have heard my sphincter
muscles working. John and Tony Cope saw the
oil pressure dive with three stages to go but with fingers crossed finished
fourth. And after a determined charge over the dark island roads on the final
night John Swinscoe and Allan Whittaker overtook Ian and Neil Colman and Billy
Bird/Plug Pulleyn for fifth. Mark Durham and Andy Mort scored a quite
sensational 8th in the 1600 Corsa but only after a last minute drama
when the Corsa’s rear wheel hub and bearing collapsed. John Baird and Stan
Quirk got a result, in more ways than one. Not only did they finish ninth,
someone bid them for the car! Rounding off the top ten was Dave Miller and
Andrew Bailey. But those were the fortunate
few. Dougi Hall crashed out when leading in the first night. No damage, and the
car was just a few feet from the road, but it was stuck fast … Eddie O’Donnell
suffered two punctures on the first two stages and was left struggling to catch
up after that … John Cressey broke a driveshaft on the first night and parked
it on its ear on Saturday night … Willie Bonniwell had two punctures and then
blew the engine (big style!) … Paul Kirtley and electrical problems … Stuart
McQueen was forced out before the final Leg … James MacGillivray blew the
turbo on the second stage (again!) … and Martin Healer blew his engine. Mark Durham won the 1600
class but Doug Weir was running him close till he rumbled off the road at
Dervaig although he survived to finish a thoroughly impressive 14th
with Mike Storrar an incredible third in the Toyota engined Ford Anglia (and not
Vauxhall as reported erroneously earlier) and who will now have to suffer the
wrath of ‘the wife’ who spotted his comment about this rally in an earlier
Bulletin: “It’s better than sex!” Ian Chadwick was an
impressive 1400 class winner in the German sausage tin, the wee VW Polo
finishing a hugely impressive 20th overall! Duncan Cameron was second
in class in the Peugeot after a spirited battle with third placed Jim Brindle in
the Mini. As ever, the Marshals were
wonderful, the Polis were great, the organisers in control, the islanders
welcoming, the sponsors supportive and the competitors tremendous. From all of
us to all of youse, a big and special ‘Thanks’. And to Oban FM for giving us
such delightful earache - and my own thanks to the efforts of Bill’n’Bob the
Bulletin Boys. And finally, spare a thought
for Chief Results Officer Mark Goosens who has been detained in hospital in
Glasgow following his accident on Wednesday, but the team did such a good job in
his absence he might find himself out of a job next year. And finally, finally, a
special word of thanks to the ‘silent spectator’ at Dervaig. To the man who
inspired a rallying revolution in the history of closed public road rallying in
the UK and to the man who inspired the team behind the success of the Philips
Tour of Mull Rally. Thanks Brian. And do you know something?
That wasn’t mist, or fog, or low cloud, that was drifting down the Bellart
last night, it was definitely pipe smoke. Yer auld pal, Jaggy Bunnet, Tobermory, Sunday, 2:00 pm. |
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