Rally - Notes after SS2

It’s highly unlikely any stage records will be broken tonight on this year’s Tunnock’s Mull Rally. It’s cold, wet and wild out there.

When Callum Duffy says these conditions are the worst he’s experience on Mull, that kind of puts things in perspective: “I had Wets on the front and Inters on the rear, but they’re still too hard. I’m going for soft cut slicks at the back now. It’s wet and greasy and there’s lots of standing water. There are places where you expect water and it’s not there, and where you don’t expect it, there are huge puddles or water running across the road.”

James MacGillivray didn’t get far, the Escort pulling up with a fuel/electrical problem in the first stage. He got it fixed and drove out but might not be going any further.

John Cope was in trouble with the Subaru too: “The front o/side driveshaft broke in the first stage and I had to drive through the second one to reach here. That’s 12 miles on a broken shaft, we won’t know what’s inside till we strip it out at service.”

Lying second after two stages in the Nissan Sunny and surprised to be there is Tony Bardy: “I had a big skid in the second test about 6 miles from the end and it took a while to realise I didn’t have  a puncture.”

Daniel Harper was in trouble with the German sausage tine too but is still going: “We had a bit of a bang in the first one and broke a wheel. I think we hit  a manhole cover going sideways! Lucky the tyre stayed up though.”

Eddie O’Donnell has a dodgy wiper blade on the driver’s side of the Escort: “I can’t see at times, it’s all smudged and smeared,” he said. No doubt in the interests of budget rallying he’ll simply swap them over cos his Dad won’t need to see through the windscreen on his side.

Tristan Pye is not confident at the moment in the Subaru: We’ve got a new engine with more power, and the suspension is different too.” When did you last hear a driver complain about too much power, eh, some folk are never happy!

John MacCrone is going well in the 1.6 Fiesta but said: “The flat-shift is not working so I’m having to change gear using the clutch. We’re losing a wee bit of time with that.” But like everyone else he’s having trouble picking the right tyres for the job: “We had Slicks on the back and are going on to Inters now and try and get some grip.”

Young Peter Taylor in the Focus is puzzled: The car feels good, it’s just me.”

Jonathan Mounsey in the Lancer exclaimed: “Someone’s nicked me front driveshafts. It was handling like a MkII in there. It was very tail happy.” That was a view shared by Lewis Gallagher who is getting to grips with his new Subaru.

Iain ‘Ogg’ MacKenzie is off on the Hill Road just after the start and it will take a long two rope to get him out

1, Duffy, 21m 10s

2, Bardy, 21m 30s

3, Gallagher, 21m 45s

4, Harper, 21m 49s

5, MacCrone, 21m 49s

6, O’Donnell, 21m 50s

7, Mounsey, 22m 12s

8,  Weir, 22m 20s

9, Chadwick, 22m 28s

10, John Cressey, 22m 39s