Originators of UK closed road motorsport

2002 – Murmur Chapter 4

MULLMURMURSMULLMURMURSMULLMURMURS – Chapter 4

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

Provisional leaderboard after SS7 (of 20)

1  Harper/Campbell (Mitsubishi Lancer) 45 mins 57 secs
2  MacKinnon/Stayte (Subaru Impreza WRC) 46m 38s
3  Duffy/Duffy (Ford Escort MkII) 47m 19s
4  Cope/Cope (Ford Escort Cosworth) 48m 12s
5  Bardy/Smith (Nissan Sunny) 48m 39s
6  Bird/Pulleyn (Ford Sierra Cosworth) 48m 55s
7  Swinscoe/Whittaker (Ford Escort MkII) 49m 12s
8  Cameron/Southall  (Mitsubishi Lancer) 49m 32s
9  Weir/Brown (Vauxhall Nova) 49m 48s
10 Kirtley/Geldart (Subaru Impreza WRC) 49m 51s

The 33rd Philips Tour of Mull Rally has a new leader. Daniel Harper has taken over at the top of the leaderboard after Dougi Hall took a dive in the new stage at Ardtun.

Apparently this is one of the slippiest tests of the night, even worse than Gribun. Dougi and Gareth are OK and the car is only a couple of feet from the edge of the road – but parked vertically on a banking!

Harper presently has a lead of just over half a minute from ten times Tour winner Neil MacKinnon who is now getting to grips with the Subaru: “I’m just going away steady,” he said, “and the times are coming.” That’s a threat if ever I heard one! But then again, look at Callum Duffy’s times. So far the red and yellow Escort is holding its own after its earlier troubles and Duffy has moved up to third.

Moving into fourth place is Tony Cope. The earlier throttle jamming open problem has now been fixed, it was the cable itself which was sticking.

But a word of caution dear reader, please note that these times are very provisional, some of the later numbers are running very quickly and could well post better times. Mark Durham for instance in the Corsa Kit Car and Dave Taylor in a Mitsubishi were in the top ten after three stages, but the running order on Saturday should help to improve bulletin efficiency!

It looks like Robin Hamilton failed to make SS1. The Metro was having alternator troubles even before the rally start … Rob Davies has a problem, TCA? … Mark Jasper also has a front end problem … Stuart McQueen doesn’t have full wets, only intermediates and reckons: “It’s scary out there!” Amen to that.

That’s yer lot for now, more later,

Yer auld pal, Jaggy Bunnet, Salen Hotel, Saturday, 1:35 am.

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