TEAM WIN 'BEST SCOTTISH NEWCOMERS' ON TOUR OF MULL RALLY 2008

Well, we had a great run on the 'Tour', the car was faultless all through the event culminating in a cracking result for us and the flag for Mini Sport and our team was well and truly flown all event!

Heres what happened -

Our Framor Garage and Mini Sport of Padiham supported BMW MINI Cooper 'S' started at car number 145 on the Friday night stages. There was a lot of standing water on the stages in the south of the island meaning a good tyre choice for the first leg of the event was going to be vital.

With soft compound cut slicks fitted we charged off into the nights 6 stages and so began a rally long battle with the other Mini Sport Cooper 'S' of Ian and Gary Dawes. We beat the Dawes brothers on four of the nights slippery stages and by 4am had secured a good position for the second leg during the daylight stages on Saturday.

photo by AMLPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

With the weather improving the team could really attack the stages on full 'dry' tyres. The Dawes brothers clawed back time over us on the first two stages which we won back on the 11 mile Calgary Bay stage on the west coast of the island. The following two stages were then again won back by the Dawes brothers and a real hard push by both Minis on the Loch Tuath Stage 11 saw us tie with exactly the same time over the 7.5 mile test.

The Loch Tuath Stage has some of the biggest jumps on the rally and a heavy landing broke an engine mount on our Cooper 'S'. With no emergency service allowed we had to drive to ensure the car finished the leg in one piece to carry on the fight on the final leg of the rally and to lose as little time as possible to the other Mini Sport crew.

At Service our mechanics made rapid repairs, changing the engine mount and drive shafts for the final nights push. We had to make up 52 seconds the Dawes brothers now had over us.

On Stages 13 and 14, we pulled back time by winning the stages over the Dawes brothers. Stage 13 was a massive 23 mile stage demanding full concentration and we came out of the stage with a front left puncture and only four minutes to get to the start the next stage. The emergency service crew made the fastest wheel change of the rally and no penalties were incurred.

Back at Craignure for the last main service we were only 5 seconds behind the Dawes brothers. The final 3 Special Stages were crucial to catching them. As we only carried enough fuel for the next two stages to keep the car as light as possible, this required our management car to undertake a planned emergency service to refuel the car between stages 15 and 16. No fuel, no finish!

Despite a huge slide on a bend in stage 13 we went on to win stages 14, 15 and 16, leaving just the 14.5 mile final Stage of the Hill Road and Glen Bellart as the decider.

Unfortunately a big spin at Dervaig junction cost us time and the Team Mini Sport battle went to the Dawes brothers by mere seconds!

A superb rallying battle was had all over the island and we finished 51st overall (up 93 places!) and were awarded the trophy for 'Best Scottish Newcomers' at the rally prizegiving.

Rallying is a tough old sport and the other two Mini Sport cars sucumbed to a broken gearbox and a cracked wishbone. Daniel in the lead car was as high as 3rd overall in his Mini Sport Cooper 'S'.

The Granite City Rally 2008

April saw the team out competing on 'The Granite', our local round of the Scottish Rally Championship.  We had an excellent days motorsport in superb sunshine!

We spent the first three stages setting up the cars handling as it was its competetive debut on gravel. The first stage, Blackhall, was so rough by the time we got through, it was almost undrivable in some places.  A quick check over by Daniel, Mick and Claire in the Management car on the road section saw us on our way to Stage 2 after which we made some adjustments  to the suspension for more grip.

We came out of Stage 3 with a vibration from the rear of the car. At Main Service this was found to be a loose rear damper which was quickly sorted out. A ball joint was also changed as a precaution and we disconnected the rear anti-roll bar to see if we could further improve the handling.

With the handling getting better and better each stage we went into Stage 4 with more confidence in the car and started to push much harder. The stage times reflected this and we started to catch the Evo in front of us. We pressed on again in Stage 5, catching it again when it rolled into a ditch a corner ahead of us!

The final stage at Durris was also a flyer and we crossed the finish line back in Aberdeen with huge smiles!

The Red Arrows and Team Mini Sport 2008

In May, we joined the other three Mini Sport cars at Scampton Airfield for a big photo shoot with The Red Arrows. It was a perfect day and the four red Minis looked superb with the ten red Hawks lined up on the runway.  We were treated to a display and following the official photographs we then spent a couple of hours 'hooning' about the airfield giving passenger rides.

We were still in forest spec, fresh from The Granite City Rally complete with knobbly tyres which meant very little grip but had enourmous fun doing massive drifts flat out in 5th gear! .....Clarkson, eat your heart out!!