Mull Rally 2014 Report

The 2014 Mull Rally was met with much anticipation from the team at Mini Sport, knowing that we had competitive cars and very capable drivers. In fact, after a run of bad luck over the last few years, everyone was hopeful that 2002 winner Daniel Harper would be able to finish amongst the front runners once again and possibly even claim a podium spot.

The Mini Sport Rally Team arrived on Mull to what was quite miserable weather.. It looked like it was going to be a slippy rally!

Stage 1 was Calgary Bay and it didn’t go as well as well as we hoped for. It all seemed to go wrong straight away with Daniel finishing the first stage nearly 3 minutes off the pace set by James MacGillivary. He later explained after the stage: “We broke the exhaust just half a mile into the stage. Not the start we wanted… Conditions are terrible.” However the other Mini Sport members got off to a clean if unextraordinary start with John Cressey finishing the stage in 35th, Martin Page in equal 46th, plus Louise Thomas in her first Mull Rally and fundraising for Marie Curie finishing in 119th.

Having fixed the exhaust Daniel battled on and did the best he could in the slippery conditions, making his way through the field to finish the day in 17th. John and Louise improved slightly too, moving up to 30th and 114th respectively, however Martin finished the day in 99th, having slid down the leaderboard due to a fuelling issue that resulted in him missing rounds 4 to 6 and picking up maximum times.

Day 2 and all the team were hoping for both better weather and better results. Well.. the weather certainly improved, but Louise never made it off the start line the next morning having encountered mechanical issues and Daniel’s Mini Cooper S didn’t fare much better having picked up a miss-fire. This saw Daniel finish down in 44th on the first stage, Ardtun, in the morning. The problem progressively worsened throughout the day, eventually leading to Daniel retiring and missing stages 10 through to 15, completely wrecking any chance of a top ten result with maximum stage times for yet another Mini Sport driver.

On a more positive note John Cressey was still going steadily and gained a further 2 places across the course of the day, up to 24th. Martin Page was also back and finish the day having progressed up to 57th place, after resolving the fuelling issue.

The final day saw just three stages in the morning: Gribun 2, Scridain 2 and the long final stretch home, the Loch Tauth/Calgary Bay Stage.  Daniel was back in top form having replaced the intercooler that was causing the miss-fire issue and finished the last three stages in 4th, 5th and 4th. A good end to what was ultimately a disappointing Mull Rally for him, finishing 51st overall. John Cressey maintained his form and plodded on into the top 20, finishing in a respectable 17th position whilst Martin Page did enough to stay in front of the resurgent Daniel Harper and move up 8 places to 49th overall.

This years rally was certainly tough and with the poor weather and many retirees, congratulations must go to Callum Duffy who eventually won the event, for what was the 8th time, in his Mk2 Ford Escort.

Although this years rally didn’t go exactly as hoped for the Mini Sport team and frustrations were high, lessons were learn’t and ultimately a good time was had by all. The event was a great spectacle and was host to some amazing rallying. With over 130 cars competing over the course of just one weekend thanks must go out to all the organiser, officials, marshals, spectators, islanders and drivers who make the event what it is. Here at Mini Sport we certainly rate the Mull Rally highly and are already looking forward to next years event.

Images are courtesy of Chicane Media

Here are the top ten for you plus all the stage times for the Mini Sport team: