19.25 - The start time for Car 29 at the Mull Rally. 1 year of planning, months of preparation, hours of travelling and tarmac training in 2 different countries all come down to this moment. Finally you say, after sitting through pages of FB updates, and blog write ups, we're getting to the main event.....they better not go out on the first stage after all this......because that would be crazy right?........ugh......
Tobermory - The main hub of the Mull Rally
The beautiful town of Tobermory was the setting for the night time start to the event. Roads were blocked off, rally cars were lining up, hundreds of spectators gathered round. AMAZING atmosphere! With the recording of the Rally Forum being broadcast through the loud speakers, and the rumble of the rally cars pulling in trying to get sorted into their correct order, I was struck by how much rally 'fever' really had taken hold on the tiny island. The build up to the event was impressive, but actually taking a second to look around and take it all in was fantastic.
Lining up for the start in Tobermory
When we first heard that Jimmy McRae was entered in the rally, Nick was pretty excited by it all. I would receive random text messages from my 32 year old brother saying "...I need to get Jimmy's autograph...." or "Do you think we will be able to get Jimmy to take a photo with us and the car?". Anyone who knows Nick will understand why I found this so amusing. He very rarely gets excited about anything. Sure, he was looking forward to the rally, eager to get started and was in awe of the fact that we'd managed to pull it all off to get here, but full blown "kid-on-Christmas-morning" excitement was unusual for him.
So when he found out that our Uncle Jeremy knew Ian Grindrod, Jimmy's co-driver, his main mission was to convince Jimmy McRae to sign the rally car.....oh yes....we'd graduated from a simple autograph or photo to actually signing the Canadian flag vinyl on the roof of the rally car.
While waiting for the start festivities to get underway, Nick actually accomplished his mission. I saw him standing there waiting for him to wander over & was surprised I didn't see Nick jumping up and down with his marker pen! hahahaha.....thanks Jimmy, you're a good sport!
The finished product
The ceremonial start line for the rally was surrounded by a huge crowd of people and pulling into the time control was unreal. Once realizing Nick and I were sat on the wrong sides of the car, the time control marshal and the gentleman manning the microphone switched places. Nick did his start interview while I organized my time cards, which was quite amusing in itself as the marshal stood there looking at me.....waiting for something....ah yes...you want my time card.....sure I've done this before, honest!
19:25 Car 29 MTC Out, 2014 Mull Rally
Leaving the start arch through a tunnel of spectators was a great feeling. Our crew, family and friends all in amongst them cheering us on. The voice inside my head chanting "don't turn the wrong way out of Tobermory with all these people watching!". I must have checked directions to the first stage a hundred times. Probably could have recited them in my sleep but my eyes and fingers were glued to the pages of my route book and road signs so I didn't get us off track before we could even get going.
The all important directions to the first stage
As we transitted the Mishnish Lochs stage (very few roads on the island mean you have to travel stage roads at some point on transit) through Dervaig to SS1, we had 22 minutes to get situated, take a look at the first set of notes, check the lights out in a stage environment and test the grip level on the current road conditions (braking wise). Finally checking into the stage start the adrenaline is now flowing. SS1 Calgary Bay, 10.9 miles starting off inland, then heading down past Calgary Beach and onto the coastal road for some nail biting action on the twisty stage up along the cliff edge.
Thanks to Andrew Peak for his shot of us at the start line for SS1
Sitting on the start line it was like any other event we've competed in together:
"Belts tight?".......yep
"HANS done up?"........yep
"Helmet done up?".....yep
With our stage start safety ritual complete, the fire extinguisher armed, lights on, first handful of corners read out and the ALS switched on, we now sit and wait for the countdown in "5.....4.....3....2....1, GO!"
It turns out the stage is slightly faster in the rally car than the recce car! Go figure! What a start. Hot out of the gate, it takes us a kilometre or so to get into the rhythm but it doesn't slow us down much. Nick attacked the stage straight away in his usual style even though the conditions were rather wet and the rain was still coming down. Trusting our note writing skills, it was now just a case of me reading what was in front of me and Nick driving what he hears. Good notes help us go as fast as possible right off the bat. Other than when questionable road conditions (like Rallye Perce Neige in the snow & ice) come into play, we very rarely 'take it easy on the first stage'. We don't want to put it off the road but we didn't come all this way to have a scenic Sunday drive around the coast either!
"Belts tight?".......yep
"HANS done up?"........yep
"Helmet done up?".....yep
With our stage start safety ritual complete, the fire extinguisher armed, lights on, first handful of corners read out and the ALS switched on, we now sit and wait for the countdown in "5.....4.....3....2....1, GO!"
It turns out the stage is slightly faster in the rally car than the recce car! Go figure! What a start. Hot out of the gate, it takes us a kilometre or so to get into the rhythm but it doesn't slow us down much. Nick attacked the stage straight away in his usual style even though the conditions were rather wet and the rain was still coming down. Trusting our note writing skills, it was now just a case of me reading what was in front of me and Nick driving what he hears. Good notes help us go as fast as possible right off the bat. Other than when questionable road conditions (like Rallye Perce Neige in the snow & ice) come into play, we very rarely 'take it easy on the first stage'. We don't want to put it off the road but we didn't come all this way to have a scenic Sunday drive around the coast either!
Thanks to LindsayPhotosport for this spectacular shot of us approaching Calgary Beach. www.lindsayphotosport.co.uk
The first 1/3 of the stage inland went very well. The road was wet but drivable. In car footage may catch us clipping the corner markers on the outside of a tight left hander, but that's up to the viewer to decide! Coming around past Calgary Beach my fear level went up a notch knowing we were about to get out onto the cliff road. As the stage winds up past the beach and along side a handful of houses our notes read "6L over Crest, changes". Changes meaning, we're now on the cliff edge with the Armco barrier. However, our 6L over crest turned out to be a jump mid corner. Now that nearly went all kinds of wrong!! A 6L is a pretty fast corner, and when we know beyond that corner is the tight twisty stuff we really don't want to get bent out of shape right there! No time to worry about it, just a second or so to be thankful that Nick's driving skills could keep us on the road and on we go to tackle the tricky section. FANTASTIC! Pretty intense in sections but great road. Some really fun corners that just drop away as we turn and tight sections that you couldn't believe you'd be able to run them at any sort of speed until you are doing so.
Suddenly after passing the 6.36 mile marker and radio car, things start to take a turn for the worst. Luckily it's a fairly straight section but for a couple of seconds I lose my interior light. At first I'm not sure exactly what's wrong and I'm trying to fix my overhead light when Nick coasts to the side of the road voicing "No Power".......no power as in no lights? no ignition?......it turns out no accelerator. We have had similar incidences where its been necessary to switch the car off and on a couple of times until it starts, but this didn't seem to be working.
As usual, Nick gets the obligatory 5 seconds to attempt to get us out of our current situation before I am popping my belts and running off down the stage with my triangle. We were parked up on a fairly straight section and well off to the side so it wasn't really necessary for me to slow cars down too much.
As I'm down the road, in the dark...because I always forget to grab a flashlight as I'm booking it down the road before the next car catches us.....I hear the car start up again. Really?? This reminds me of Tall Pines last year! Despite the yelling from spectators who had somehow found their way out to the middle of the stage, that I should "go go go....he's got the car going again...", I had to wait for another car to pass so I know I have about a minute before the next car is upon us. Once it passes us, I take off sprinting back up the road. As much sprinting as I can do, in the dark, uphill on wet tarmac in my race suit and helmet.
The relief that the car was running again was short lived and we managed to coast it about 100ft up the road before it stopped again. Cue my stage running abilities again. It seemed the car only wanted to move a few feet before we lost momentum so the next 5 minutes was spent with Nick switching the car on and off and seeing if he could get it to a safe place to park it off the road. Which meant my job was stand out in the road with the triangle, moving it up every so often once he was able to drive the car a little further. Still with no flashlight..........Enter from stage left - Random Spectator group number 2!! While the one helpful guy was assisting Nick parking up the Subaru, his buddies were shining their giant flashlights on the road so I could see where I was going. Along with cheering me on and requesting engine noises as I was running! Not sure about engine noises, but oxygen sure sounded like a plan right about then!
Suddenly after passing the 6.36 mile marker and radio car, things start to take a turn for the worst. Luckily it's a fairly straight section but for a couple of seconds I lose my interior light. At first I'm not sure exactly what's wrong and I'm trying to fix my overhead light when Nick coasts to the side of the road voicing "No Power".......no power as in no lights? no ignition?......it turns out no accelerator. We have had similar incidences where its been necessary to switch the car off and on a couple of times until it starts, but this didn't seem to be working.
As usual, Nick gets the obligatory 5 seconds to attempt to get us out of our current situation before I am popping my belts and running off down the stage with my triangle. We were parked up on a fairly straight section and well off to the side so it wasn't really necessary for me to slow cars down too much.
As I'm down the road, in the dark...because I always forget to grab a flashlight as I'm booking it down the road before the next car catches us.....I hear the car start up again. Really?? This reminds me of Tall Pines last year! Despite the yelling from spectators who had somehow found their way out to the middle of the stage, that I should "go go go....he's got the car going again...", I had to wait for another car to pass so I know I have about a minute before the next car is upon us. Once it passes us, I take off sprinting back up the road. As much sprinting as I can do, in the dark, uphill on wet tarmac in my race suit and helmet.
The relief that the car was running again was short lived and we managed to coast it about 100ft up the road before it stopped again. Cue my stage running abilities again. It seemed the car only wanted to move a few feet before we lost momentum so the next 5 minutes was spent with Nick switching the car on and off and seeing if he could get it to a safe place to park it off the road. Which meant my job was stand out in the road with the triangle, moving it up every so often once he was able to drive the car a little further. Still with no flashlight..........Enter from stage left - Random Spectator group number 2!! While the one helpful guy was assisting Nick parking up the Subaru, his buddies were shining their giant flashlights on the road so I could see where I was going. Along with cheering me on and requesting engine noises as I was running! Not sure about engine noises, but oxygen sure sounded like a plan right about then!
Highlights the point where we retired on stage
I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a bit of swearing and angry gesturing going on between Nick and I at that point in time, not at each other but at the car and quite possibly the world. Seriously 6 Miles into the first stage??!!! We're in Scotland! not 3 hours down the road at a local rally!! Ok, think......check switches, check hoses under the hood, connectors, gas level, anything that could possibly just need adjusting to get us started again. Our new found friends confirmed no cell signal right where we were so I couldn't even call the emergency number to log our position or talk to our mechanics. We were already pretty close to maxing late once we'd gone through the car trying to find anything that looked loose enough to cause a problem. Well we couldn't just sit here all night so I took off hiking it up the hill with my headlamp trying to find cell signal.
Eventually finding 1 bar (of signal, not alcohol) I made the call to the Emerg number. The emerg number located on every page of the routebook connected you straight to radio control. It was an easy way for them to know exactly where you were and if you were ok or not. We had been instructed at the drivers meeting to give names, car number, location and situation - not to just ring in and hang up. Once I'd confirmed we were fine but the car may need flat towing out I called our crew.
Iain attempted to explain, with poor signal and wind whistling past my ears, how to cut and splice wiring in order to bypass the wires with the issue...oh ok I'll get right on that!!
Cautiously climbing my way back down the rocky hill I tried to explain our wiring mission to Nick. He looked at me like I was making it up. "I swear that's what Iain told me to do!!"
With no clue as to what we were actually doing, we went beneath the dash, unplugged wires, jiggled fuses, and without having to cut and splice anything we managed to get the car started, and kept it running for a long time. It couldn't be that easy? could it?
Eventually finding 1 bar (of signal, not alcohol) I made the call to the Emerg number. The emerg number located on every page of the routebook connected you straight to radio control. It was an easy way for them to know exactly where you were and if you were ok or not. We had been instructed at the drivers meeting to give names, car number, location and situation - not to just ring in and hang up. Once I'd confirmed we were fine but the car may need flat towing out I called our crew.
Iain attempted to explain, with poor signal and wind whistling past my ears, how to cut and splice wiring in order to bypass the wires with the issue...oh ok I'll get right on that!!
Cautiously climbing my way back down the rocky hill I tried to explain our wiring mission to Nick. He looked at me like I was making it up. "I swear that's what Iain told me to do!!"
With no clue as to what we were actually doing, we went beneath the dash, unplugged wires, jiggled fuses, and without having to cut and splice anything we managed to get the car started, and kept it running for a long time. It couldn't be that easy? could it?
That about sums it up. Dark, in the middle of nowhere, with a triangle. Just how our first leg ended.
Having now maxed late and with our first leg of the rally over and done with, I made the fun climb back up the rocks to call back into radio control advising them that we could now get the car out under our own steam, the closing car had passed, and the ambulance stopped to check on us. After getting permission to leave the stage we headed home, heads hung low, extremely disappointed that we couldn't even make it through the first stage.
Back in service, the parents, who had found us a good service location in Tobermory had to repack all the equipment and head back to the house. Our chase car crew also headed home having been sat at the side of the road waiting for us to come through the 2nd stage before heading to SS3 Glenaros.
Back in service, the parents, who had found us a good service location in Tobermory had to repack all the equipment and head back to the house. Our chase car crew also headed home having been sat at the side of the road waiting for us to come through the 2nd stage before heading to SS3 Glenaros.
Our fabulous chase car
Our Chase car crew minus Amanda who was clearly taking the photo
The Chase crew was something we had never experienced before. There were a number of emergency service time slots allotted throughout the rally and after a certain number of stages your chase car could meet you at the side of the road in order to do any minor adjustments. Change a flat or if something came loose etc. Not a lot of time was put aside but it was enough to get you through the next stage and back to service. Having made the calls to the crew, everyone was sent home and was meeting us back at the main house after we transitted back there.
On our drive back the car never faltered once, until we turned into the driveway and out of the blue Nick decided to test his handbrake turn skills. The wheels locked and the car went straight! hmmmm That's not supposed to happen!! File that away as another point to mention to Iain.
By the time we'd returned to the house after we had everything organized for the next morning with the competitor liaison officers making sure we could re-start the next day, it was late and we left our crew to it. If they could fix it they would, if not.....well.....we weren't going to think about 'if not' because we'd come a heck of a long way to run 6 miles.
4am - That's what time dad and Iain finally finished working on the car. To keep things simple....plus I don't really understand it all myself.....they had to remove the diff controller completely which appeared to be causing issues with relays and by unplugging the wires the previous night we had somehow managed to reset enough to drive us home, but by no means fixed the issue. Ok, so now we were heading into the 2nd leg of the rally with no diff controller, the centre diff locked and no handbrake. Oh this sounds like fun!!
On our drive back the car never faltered once, until we turned into the driveway and out of the blue Nick decided to test his handbrake turn skills. The wheels locked and the car went straight! hmmmm That's not supposed to happen!! File that away as another point to mention to Iain.
By the time we'd returned to the house after we had everything organized for the next morning with the competitor liaison officers making sure we could re-start the next day, it was late and we left our crew to it. If they could fix it they would, if not.....well.....we weren't going to think about 'if not' because we'd come a heck of a long way to run 6 miles.
4am - That's what time dad and Iain finally finished working on the car. To keep things simple....plus I don't really understand it all myself.....they had to remove the diff controller completely which appeared to be causing issues with relays and by unplugging the wires the previous night we had somehow managed to reset enough to drive us home, but by no means fixed the issue. Ok, so now we were heading into the 2nd leg of the rally with no diff controller, the centre diff locked and no handbrake. Oh this sounds like fun!!
Waiting for the scrutineer to give us the go ahead for leg 2
Keeping good company at the scrutineering for the re-start of Leg 2 with Jimmy McRae and Ian Grindrod having had fuel starvation issues during the first leg causing them to retire. Once we had received approval we waited on the dock at Craignuire for the rest of the competitors to join us. As with the Friday night festivities, Saturday morning was no different, with spectators crowding the start area and drivers being interviewed on the start line. It was starting off to be a beautiful sunny day, even the dolphins came out to play in the harbor!
Scrutineering for Leg 2
Start of Leg 2. Fingers crossed this leg goes better than the last one!
The first stage of the day was located in the South West corner of the Island through the small community of Ardtun near Bunessan. The 2.6mile stage started off winding through a narrow hedge-lined single track road, past local houses and spectators on every corner and finishing up along the harbor front in Bunessan. In the midst of that there was a huge jump that many competitors had told us to take it easy on. You know Nick, the bigger the better when it comes to jumping in the rally car, so we actually had it marked as a 5R/Huge Jmp. However, with a good number of people telling him not to go too crazy over it he dialed it down mid-stage and although we still caught a fair amount of air it was nothing spectacular. As soon as we crossed the finish line and the car was coasting to the stop board he says "I could have taken that jump so much faster, we could have flown over it" oh well, with only 1 pass through Ardtun we shall never know!
Woohoo!!! A full stage completed!! Granted only 2.6miles but it felt great to have done it, setting the 6th fastest stage time at that! Passing fellow competitors and long time family friend Nicola Harper and her co-driver Suzanne as they were heading towards the stage, they were all smiles, honking the horn and giving the thumbs up to us! Finally, lets get this rally started.
Pumped up after a stage with no issues we headed over to SS8 Loch Kinloch. Now this was a stage I was looking forward to, perhaps because it started outside the house we used to vacation at as kids, who knows, but I did know it was going to be a lot of fun.
Woohoo!!! A full stage completed!! Granted only 2.6miles but it felt great to have done it, setting the 6th fastest stage time at that! Passing fellow competitors and long time family friend Nicola Harper and her co-driver Suzanne as they were heading towards the stage, they were all smiles, honking the horn and giving the thumbs up to us! Finally, lets get this rally started.
Pumped up after a stage with no issues we headed over to SS8 Loch Kinloch. Now this was a stage I was looking forward to, perhaps because it started outside the house we used to vacation at as kids, who knows, but I did know it was going to be a lot of fun.
Parked across the Loch from the stage start. Taking in our surroundings. The vacation house Ardvergnish in the background.
With the generous transit time allowing us to stop for a few minutes to catch up with fellow competitors and take a minute breather we parked up across the Loch from the stage start. Taking a few minutes to talk note strategy with Nick he decided I needed to give him corners even more in advance, especially the tighter ones in a fast section. With the car being more difficult than usual to handle due to the diff issues, he needed more warning if he was to throw the car into a tighter turn.
Waiting for the start of SS8 Loch Kinloch
Pulling up to the start line of SS8 Loch Kinloch (the Loch Scridain stage in reverse) the 4.6 mile stage was going to give us a real insight into how the car would behave for the rest of the event. Running along side the loch, not perched up on the cliff edge but along the water's edge the stage was fast yet had some tricky crests and corners thrown in for good measure.
With a very dicey corner mid-stage and a chicane we didn't realize was there we managed to set a 24th fastest stage time. Our 'note-to-self' from that stage was "When you mark a corner as 4Rcut/Jmp....you actually have to CUT the corner.....otherwise it's much tighter and the road isn't where you thought it would be when you land!!" Two wheels off in the grass/bush when we landed a was a BIG moment, but Nick recovered well and we went on to finish the stage. The in-car footage captured it all and even watching it now I cringe at the landing thinking we were VERY lucky!
The surprise chicane? well that was all my fault. In the route book its actually marked as a type of junction, but glancing through the routebook on recce it didn't jump out at me, so essentially the regular road goes straight but the rally route jogs off left, down a drive, around some huge hay bales and then back up onto the main road again. Luckily we hit this in the daylight, because the night before the same stage was run in reverse and it would have been the black plastic wrapped bales that we came across first on a flat out left hander in the dark. Yikes!
Next, onto the Griburn Rocks stage, but in reverse, named Knock SS9. My favourite stage on recce and although it was quite daunting in areas, I couldn't wait to run it. We made it all of about 2 miles into the 8.3 mile long stage before our 2nd retirement of the weekend. This time, bellied on the skid plate in a ditch on the outside of a corner. The car just seemed to let go mid turn and we dropped our right wheels in there. For once it wasn't me running up the road with triangles it was Nick as my door was stuck against the ditch and I couldn't get out of the car.
With a very dicey corner mid-stage and a chicane we didn't realize was there we managed to set a 24th fastest stage time. Our 'note-to-self' from that stage was "When you mark a corner as 4Rcut/Jmp....you actually have to CUT the corner.....otherwise it's much tighter and the road isn't where you thought it would be when you land!!" Two wheels off in the grass/bush when we landed a was a BIG moment, but Nick recovered well and we went on to finish the stage. The in-car footage captured it all and even watching it now I cringe at the landing thinking we were VERY lucky!
The surprise chicane? well that was all my fault. In the route book its actually marked as a type of junction, but glancing through the routebook on recce it didn't jump out at me, so essentially the regular road goes straight but the rally route jogs off left, down a drive, around some huge hay bales and then back up onto the main road again. Luckily we hit this in the daylight, because the night before the same stage was run in reverse and it would have been the black plastic wrapped bales that we came across first on a flat out left hander in the dark. Yikes!
Next, onto the Griburn Rocks stage, but in reverse, named Knock SS9. My favourite stage on recce and although it was quite daunting in areas, I couldn't wait to run it. We made it all of about 2 miles into the 8.3 mile long stage before our 2nd retirement of the weekend. This time, bellied on the skid plate in a ditch on the outside of a corner. The car just seemed to let go mid turn and we dropped our right wheels in there. For once it wasn't me running up the road with triangles it was Nick as my door was stuck against the ditch and I couldn't get out of the car.
Looks like we've stopped for a photo op!
Is this really happening??! With the front right tire blown, we felt while we had the time we'd change that with it sat in the ditch, who knows, it might help us, it was already off the ground so we didn't need to jack it up too much.
The ditch was just deep enough that the car was grounded on the skidplate so we had to try to jack it up high enough to get the ground clearance. With the ditch being a couple of feet deep numerous trips up the hillside were made to gather stones. We'd jack the car up.....fill the ditch with stones.....jack it up more.....add more boulders. We attempted to fill the ditch high enough so that we could get enough momentum to pop ourselves back out. To no avail. Even with the help once again of a couple of random spectators we couldn't budge it. We have been asked many times why we didn't get someone to tow us out, but the daylight stages are run at 30second intervals between cars, so we felt it was too dangerous to have someone stop to help with so little time between competitors. There are other tricks of the trade that we'd learnt over the years, but they would have involved us blocking the road and therefore again not safe at all!
So we sat there. Trust me, a valiant effort was made to get ourselves out, but once we maxed late there was no point continuing to run up the hillside. As we knew it would, the recovery truck took all of 3 seconds and 2ft to pull us out of the ditch. VERY FRUSTRATING!
I'd already called us in to radio control, letting them know we were stopped, the road was clear, we were safe and reassuring them that no spectators were getting too close to the rally cars. It seemed we were getting to know radio control better than any time control marshals. I called the number and told them car 29 was off on stage but ok......to which they replied "ok Kelly, thanks for letting us know" oh great...they know me by name....that's exactly how you want to be remembered!!
The ditch was just deep enough that the car was grounded on the skidplate so we had to try to jack it up high enough to get the ground clearance. With the ditch being a couple of feet deep numerous trips up the hillside were made to gather stones. We'd jack the car up.....fill the ditch with stones.....jack it up more.....add more boulders. We attempted to fill the ditch high enough so that we could get enough momentum to pop ourselves back out. To no avail. Even with the help once again of a couple of random spectators we couldn't budge it. We have been asked many times why we didn't get someone to tow us out, but the daylight stages are run at 30second intervals between cars, so we felt it was too dangerous to have someone stop to help with so little time between competitors. There are other tricks of the trade that we'd learnt over the years, but they would have involved us blocking the road and therefore again not safe at all!
So we sat there. Trust me, a valiant effort was made to get ourselves out, but once we maxed late there was no point continuing to run up the hillside. As we knew it would, the recovery truck took all of 3 seconds and 2ft to pull us out of the ditch. VERY FRUSTRATING!
I'd already called us in to radio control, letting them know we were stopped, the road was clear, we were safe and reassuring them that no spectators were getting too close to the rally cars. It seemed we were getting to know radio control better than any time control marshals. I called the number and told them car 29 was off on stage but ok......to which they replied "ok Kelly, thanks for letting us know" oh great...they know me by name....that's exactly how you want to be remembered!!
Not exactly testing the recovery crew's skills. An easy extraction that's for sure!
So, once again, we head back to HQ in Salen to beg and plead to be given ANOTHER chance with a restart in Leg 3 later that evening. Receiving the go-ahead to scrutineer for leg 3 we head back to the house to get ready for the night stages.
Again, the service crew (both in Tobermory and the Chase car) head back for a few hours. Dad is convinced the people located near them for service don't believe they even have a rally car to crew for, and that perhaps they just like setting up the equipment and pretending seeing as that's 2 days in a row they've sat there in the same spot watching other rally cars come and go.
Again, the service crew (both in Tobermory and the Chase car) head back for a few hours. Dad is convinced the people located near them for service don't believe they even have a rally car to crew for, and that perhaps they just like setting up the equipment and pretending seeing as that's 2 days in a row they've sat there in the same spot watching other rally cars come and go.
Getting ready to start Leg 3. Our flat tire in the bottom of the pic.
So, third times the charm right? We'd soon find out!
Having scrutineered AGAIN in order to restart leg 3 we were slotted back into the pack where we had started the event, in 25th position. With only 2 stage times to assess us with we were grateful the organizers felt they could still let us run in that position.
Leg 3 started with SS16 the in-town Tobermory stage. 0.89 mile around the harbor and up through the houses in the town. You then made your way back down to the harbor front to start SS17, the longer 7.3 mile Tober/Mishnish Lochs stage.
The very cool thing about these two stages was that they both started at the same place. Back to running minute intervals for the night stages, once you had completed SS16, you slotted back into the pack at 30 second intervals to run SS17. Just before the end of SS16 there was a junction. For the short stage, competitors turned left heading for the flying finish just beyond it, but for SS17, competitors went straight ahead, in the direction of Dervaig. Slotting in 30 seconds behind cars still running the in town Tobermory stage meant the cars on the longer stage were still 1 minute apart. Very well run. It seemed to run very smoothly from a competitors point of view, and allowed spectators to see lots of cars coming through the town stage. Great fun along the harbor front but the tight hairpin uphill between the shops could have been better assisted with a handbrake!
Having scrutineered AGAIN in order to restart leg 3 we were slotted back into the pack where we had started the event, in 25th position. With only 2 stage times to assess us with we were grateful the organizers felt they could still let us run in that position.
Leg 3 started with SS16 the in-town Tobermory stage. 0.89 mile around the harbor and up through the houses in the town. You then made your way back down to the harbor front to start SS17, the longer 7.3 mile Tober/Mishnish Lochs stage.
The very cool thing about these two stages was that they both started at the same place. Back to running minute intervals for the night stages, once you had completed SS16, you slotted back into the pack at 30 second intervals to run SS17. Just before the end of SS16 there was a junction. For the short stage, competitors turned left heading for the flying finish just beyond it, but for SS17, competitors went straight ahead, in the direction of Dervaig. Slotting in 30 seconds behind cars still running the in town Tobermory stage meant the cars on the longer stage were still 1 minute apart. Very well run. It seemed to run very smoothly from a competitors point of view, and allowed spectators to see lots of cars coming through the town stage. Great fun along the harbor front but the tight hairpin uphill between the shops could have been better assisted with a handbrake!
Start line for SS16 & SS17. The first stages of Leg 3.
The remaining 6 miles of SS17 was crazy to put it mildly. A stage full of hairpins with no handbrake and a car that was being a beast to handle? Not fun at all! However we finished the stage! Excellent, although I've never needed water so much after a stage in my life! Heck of a lot of talking through all those hairpins, and not really knowing if the car was going to let go mid corner again was a little nerve wracking.
Transitting back through the Glenaros stage towards Salen Nick turns to me and says "huh, I wasn't wearing my glasses". What??!! Nick always drives the rally car in the dark wearing glasses, I'm surprised we made it through the stage as well as we did!
Transitting back through the Glenaros stage towards Salen Nick turns to me and says "huh, I wasn't wearing my glasses". What??!! Nick always drives the rally car in the dark wearing glasses, I'm surprised we made it through the stage as well as we did!
Another great shot from LindsayPhotosport, this time of our trip through the hairpins! www.lindsayphotosport.co.uk
We then realized our Emergency Service crew was actually going to get to see a car!! Similar to our parents, we'd not yet made it to a service where we could meet our chase car so they were also sitting there watching competitors driving by, wishing they at least had to clean the windshield! They did get several compliments on the chase vehicle though, so I think my uncle was secretly happy about that!
When we pulled into the side of the road where they were located, the grins from them was fantastic. Yes, we finally got far enough for them to see us, and we were still good to go to the next stage! With only a water top up needed for me, we bid them farewell and headed to Griburn Rocks and Scridain. By this point it was a case of lets just get through the stages, don't go too crazy and get to the end. As much as I loved Griburn, our pass through it was a little dodgy. I don't really remember too much about either stage to be honest, it was just a case of read the notes, get in and get out. As much as I trust Nick's driving, at this point I really didn't trust the car, and Griburn is NOT the stage to be doing if you don't trust the car you are in.
Thanks to friends of ours taking a look through our route book, we were able to locate the 'surprise chicane' so we didn't come across those hay bales all of a sudden, and Scridain was much the same as Griburn with a couple of 'moments' of its own; get it done, get to service, and lets tackle this 34KM final stage of the night.
Well, that didn't quite go to plan either. I mean, nothing else really has all weekend so why should it?!
Pulling into the finish time control of SS19 Nick noticed the temp gauge was high, and when I say high I mean off the charts!
Heater was on, ALS was off, there wasn't much more we could do. It was a case of baby it back to service or pull over and park it. Luckily we had signal and managed to call our crew. We were 15 miles from service and with no coolant leaks that we could see we gently drove it to regroup where we were able to collect enough bottled water to make a slight dent in the temperature, and the 20 mins cooling down period helped us.
Finally our first attempt at service and with a suspected head gasket issue we were done. Retired. Again. Wow! What an event. Everything that could go wrong did. We filled up the rad and again gently drove it back to the house. On the plus side, the HUGE stag crossing our path just outside of Craignuire was magnificent!
We are the first to admit it was not how we wanted our event to go at all. We knew we had the pace to set some respectable times and yet we didn't really get chance to prove ourselves. Rallying isn't always sunshine & smiles though. You have to take the highs with the lows. The fact we'd made this trip over there, as a family, met up with friends we haven't seen for years and fallen back into easy fun & conversation like we'd never been away was fantastic. What an experience. An amazing rally, and if we can ever save up enough money to return, we'd be back in a heartbeat!
The following day we headed to the prize giving ceremony in Tobermory. Both of Graham's daughters finishing the event - with Donna & her driver taking 2nd place in Class 3 and 13th O/A - and many other friends we'd made along the way also doing very well. It was great to see Calum Duffy and his co-driver Iain topping the podium in their MkII Escort. Flanked by two Subarus they'd all pushed hard and had a great run all weekend. With one of the wettest Mull rallies to date, everyone seemed to have had a fantastic event.
As it turned out we wouldn't be going home empty handed. Picking up the Gary Bratt Memorial Trophy for a Service Crew award. Having been preparing for this event since Oct 2013 and all the work that went into getting the car to Scotland, setting up phantom service areas at the event etc, our service crew definitely deserved to be acknowledged!
When we pulled into the side of the road where they were located, the grins from them was fantastic. Yes, we finally got far enough for them to see us, and we were still good to go to the next stage! With only a water top up needed for me, we bid them farewell and headed to Griburn Rocks and Scridain. By this point it was a case of lets just get through the stages, don't go too crazy and get to the end. As much as I loved Griburn, our pass through it was a little dodgy. I don't really remember too much about either stage to be honest, it was just a case of read the notes, get in and get out. As much as I trust Nick's driving, at this point I really didn't trust the car, and Griburn is NOT the stage to be doing if you don't trust the car you are in.
Thanks to friends of ours taking a look through our route book, we were able to locate the 'surprise chicane' so we didn't come across those hay bales all of a sudden, and Scridain was much the same as Griburn with a couple of 'moments' of its own; get it done, get to service, and lets tackle this 34KM final stage of the night.
Well, that didn't quite go to plan either. I mean, nothing else really has all weekend so why should it?!
Pulling into the finish time control of SS19 Nick noticed the temp gauge was high, and when I say high I mean off the charts!
Heater was on, ALS was off, there wasn't much more we could do. It was a case of baby it back to service or pull over and park it. Luckily we had signal and managed to call our crew. We were 15 miles from service and with no coolant leaks that we could see we gently drove it to regroup where we were able to collect enough bottled water to make a slight dent in the temperature, and the 20 mins cooling down period helped us.
Finally our first attempt at service and with a suspected head gasket issue we were done. Retired. Again. Wow! What an event. Everything that could go wrong did. We filled up the rad and again gently drove it back to the house. On the plus side, the HUGE stag crossing our path just outside of Craignuire was magnificent!
We are the first to admit it was not how we wanted our event to go at all. We knew we had the pace to set some respectable times and yet we didn't really get chance to prove ourselves. Rallying isn't always sunshine & smiles though. You have to take the highs with the lows. The fact we'd made this trip over there, as a family, met up with friends we haven't seen for years and fallen back into easy fun & conversation like we'd never been away was fantastic. What an experience. An amazing rally, and if we can ever save up enough money to return, we'd be back in a heartbeat!
The following day we headed to the prize giving ceremony in Tobermory. Both of Graham's daughters finishing the event - with Donna & her driver taking 2nd place in Class 3 and 13th O/A - and many other friends we'd made along the way also doing very well. It was great to see Calum Duffy and his co-driver Iain topping the podium in their MkII Escort. Flanked by two Subarus they'd all pushed hard and had a great run all weekend. With one of the wettest Mull rallies to date, everyone seemed to have had a fantastic event.
As it turned out we wouldn't be going home empty handed. Picking up the Gary Bratt Memorial Trophy for a Service Crew award. Having been preparing for this event since Oct 2013 and all the work that went into getting the car to Scotland, setting up phantom service areas at the event etc, our service crew definitely deserved to be acknowledged!
Mum and dad proudly displaying their trophy for the Service crew award
Kept the crew busy all weekend randomly driving around the island
When I mentioned to dad that the Trophy is something handed out every year and therefore we would somehow have to return it if we take it back to Canada with us he replied "well I guess we'll just have to come back next year then!"
Hahah pretty sure that will be MINUS the rally car though, but I'm all up for another Mull vacation in 2015.
Thanks to everyone involved with the event; organizers, volunteers, spectators, fellow competitors, family & friends. It was an adventure that's for sure. Without the hard work of everyone pulling together to make this all happen we wouldn't have had the chance to participate. Congratulations to the event organizers themselves for putting together a great rally. Not only was the promotion & running of the event very well done, but we were made very welcome, and sure hope we can return to compete in the future.
Thanks to our crew at Planet Motorsport for prepping the car....lets hope we can figure out what the issues are and get it back on stage roads as soon as possible.
Hahah pretty sure that will be MINUS the rally car though, but I'm all up for another Mull vacation in 2015.
Thanks to everyone involved with the event; organizers, volunteers, spectators, fellow competitors, family & friends. It was an adventure that's for sure. Without the hard work of everyone pulling together to make this all happen we wouldn't have had the chance to participate. Congratulations to the event organizers themselves for putting together a great rally. Not only was the promotion & running of the event very well done, but we were made very welcome, and sure hope we can return to compete in the future.
Thanks to our crew at Planet Motorsport for prepping the car....lets hope we can figure out what the issues are and get it back on stage roads as soon as possible.
Nick & his wife Amanda rocking the 2 Brits wear.
Thanks to Nick's supportive wife Amanda who always had positive thoughts all weekend. Glad we could show you a little of our childhood.
Also the amazing support we received from friends following back home was great. With limited cell signal we were unable to update social media regularly the way we had intended, but we were constantly flooded with well wishes and encouraging words to keep us on track. It was very much appreciated.
Also the amazing support we received from friends following back home was great. With limited cell signal we were unable to update social media regularly the way we had intended, but we were constantly flooded with well wishes and encouraging words to keep us on track. It was very much appreciated.
Huge thanks to our parents, family members and friends helping out. Although it wasn't the result we were looking for, it was definitely an experience. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. Now time to pack it all back up into a container and send it back over the pond. Hey, we might actually get out and see some of the island now! First stop Duart Castle, then Calgary Beach I think!
Until next time Mull. Thanks for the fabulous memories. It was a BLAST!
Until next time Mull. Thanks for the fabulous memories. It was a BLAST!
The Reunion: True to form as in most of our childhood Mull photos, Nick is nowhere to be seen!!!!
Until next time Tobermory
Calgary Beach on a beautiful sunny day
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