As ever, MacKay’s Garage in Tobermory is a hive of activity
throughout the rally, and none more so than Iain Noble who works there, better
known to one and all as Fuey the Fireman. Part of the volunteer fire crew on
the island, Fuey is more used to a diesel Scania than the firepower of a rally
car but once again, Alan Gardiner, one of the top seeds, has loaned Fuey his ‘spare’
car for the weekend.
“Fuey’s a good friend and long time supporter of the rally,”
said Alan, “and he’s pretty quick too.”
“I’ve done the rally a few times,” said Fuey, “but it’s good
of Alan to let me have a run in his MkII. It’ll be quite quick though, it’s got
a 2 litre JRE engine, but not quite as quick as Alan’s 2.4 litre job.”
But I’ll tell you what, Fuey will be worth watching this
weekend. As a local, folk often ask him what the weather is going to be like
and what tyres they should be using in the expected conditions. Now bearing in
mind the rain has been pretty constant over recent days and is still raining
now, Fuey took a look skywards and proclaimed: “It’ll be cuts on the front and
slicks on the back tonight.”
As I said, it’ll be worth hanging around to see car 85 in
the 120 car entry through the stages tonight. Game on.
