Murmur 3

Mull Murmur 3 (Click HERE for Printer Friendly Format)

- published on the island, during the event by Jaggy Bunnet

Interim Positions After Stage 3 (of 20):

1 Neil MacKinnon/Mike Stayte (Subaru Impreza)            26 mins 59 secs
2 Calum Duffy/Del Duffy (Ford Escort)                              27 mins 25 secs
3 John Swinscoe/John Bennett (Mitsubishi Lancer)        28 mins 34 secs
4 John Price/Caroline Price (MG Metro 6R4)                  28 mins 39 secs
5 Dave Miller/Andrew Bailey (Subaru Impreza)               29 mins 17 secs
6 Lyndon Barton/Johnny Vance (Subaru Impreza)          29 mins 32 secs
7 Doug Weir/Duncan Brown (Vauxhall Nova)                  29 mins 37 secs
8 Mark Durham/Andy Mort (Opel Corsa Kit)                    29 mins 40 secs
9 Paul Kirtley/Jon Geldart (Subaru Impreza)                    29 mins 51 secs
10 Mark Jasper/Alan Snell (MG Metro 6R4)                    29 mins 53 secs

Calm and composed as ever. "It's all right, but it's a bit slippy out there," said Neil MacKinnon at first service, "there's some grit scattered on a hairpin in Stage 2. I had to handbrake it to get round." With three stages gone in this 34th Philips Tour of Mull Rally, so have some of the top seeds. Dougi Hall is out: "I spun on the Lochs, got two punctures and only carry one spare. I also ripped off a brake pipe so dropped a lot of time." John Cope is also out, apparently on Stage 2. Billy Bird also departed the fray on Stage 2 followed by Steve Davies.

As for last year's winner, Daniel Harper dropped a chunk of time in the second stage: "I just nipped a rock a bit tight and punctured the front right tyre. I had to drive a mile before I could pull over to change it. We parked on a bit of a slope and it fell off the jack. We lost over five minutes but it's real greasy out there. The problem is, there's no consistency, one minute plenty of grip, the next, none." Calum Duffy is lying second and he too is saying it's slippy: "The tyres come in and it feels really good and then they just go off. It's so slippy in places you can't tell. We had three horrendous moments, at the hairpin in Stage 2 we were nearly off. We slid off and had to reverse out, where grit was scattered across the road." John Price is lying fourth but lost a bit of time where Dougi Hall went off and spun on Stage 2 at the gritty hairpin. John Cressey is out of the top ten with overheating: "When we get over 4500 rpm the temperature gauge goes up and we have to slow down to 3500 till it drops. It's losing water and we don't know what's causing it yet." James MacGillivray in Willie Bonniwell's MkII got a Maximum in Stage 1 when he tried to pass John Cope and the Escort bellied out on the verge. Doug Weir in the 1600 Nova is lying 7th overall but the car won't start so he has to keep the engine running. Tony Bardy punctured in Stage 1 and had to stop and change it. Stuart McQueen damaged a rear wheel on the first stage when he hit something in the verge. It would appear that today's rain showers came too late in the day for any chance to dry outhence the greasy conditions, but only in certain places.

And finally, just a wee point to bear in mind when reading these scurrilous rumour sheets, the Interim Positions as stated above are very provisional and based on time calculated in the field - so they may not be 100% accurate all the time!! Yer auld pal, Jaggy Bunnet, Craignure, 10.30 pm