9: A catch-up on Mull

9: A catch-up on Mull - 1973 - 81

Sit down and get comfortable!... I seem to have fast-forwarded to 79 & 80 without bringing you up to date on the Isle of Mull. Dad (Roy) and I competed every year except 1976 (despite being desperate not to miss the event I was in the middle of radiotherapy for the testicular cancer. I don’t think you’d want to do both now, and you certainly didn’t want to do it then!)

In 1973 dad and I contested the Tour of Mull together for the first time, in the blue Mexico BFR 632L. We’d both rolled out the year before, me when Brian Tyldesley’s seat let go at Tree Bend, dad much earlier, near Glengorm on the afternoon section, when Trevor flipped the Mini over. Times have changed – dad recalled how they both needed a cigarette; Trevor had a packet in the driver’s door pocket but they’d disappeared. They were eventually found in the passenger door pocket, having rolled around the roof in sync with the car!

1973 was the only time dad drove the whole event. I can’t remember the result – it probably wasn’t bad but we didn’t break any records either. In 1974 we were forced to use my newly-acquired red Mexico TCW 360K after dad had rolled his car without enough time to re-shell it. Another steady drive round and an ‘also-ran’ result.

From memory 1975 would have been back in BFR. In those days it was still legal for the crew to swap seats during the event, so dad drove the first stage (Mishnish Lochs) and then handed over to me for the rest of the rally. He often recounted with amusement the driver of the car behind coming to my window at the start of the ‘Long One’ and saying to me “Bloody hell Bill, you must have flown along Mishnish Lochs just now!” – dad leaned across and said, rather matter-of-factly, “I drove that one!”

This arrangement continued for a few years. I think in ‘76 he’d traded the Mexico in for a brand-new droop-snoot RS2000 (PFV 577P) – absolutely the Bees’ Knees, but of course I couldn’t make it to the island, and I don’t think we ever did the rally in that car. By ’77 I was back and getting more competitive – that was the first year we made it ‘on to the calendar’ – November, i.e. 11th overall. I was hopeless through the opening forest sections in the afternoon (on road tyres too) but loved taking time off the Scottish Championship boys at night, when they said they couldn’t see!! (I was always blessed - by pure good fortune I have to say - with such good night vision that I drove just as quickly in the dark as daylight.) I think we must have been December at the start of the final stage, with Roger Collinson and Fred Bent in 11th, but we overhauled them with one of my usual quick times on Mishnish Lochs. Roger and Fred were still at the finish control when we got there, and seeing our time Fred just said “Bugger.” In later life when dad’s dementia kicked in, he must have told that story hundreds of times. Fred, if you only knew how many times you were mentioned…!

The ’78 event was only two months after Val and I were married. The car hadn’t done an event for months, and I had to burn the midnight oil to get it ready. Lots went wrong on the event itself, and although we finished (I think) we were nowhere. The mortgage rate went sky-high at around the same time and with a heavy heart I sold the car.

Perhaps the following year, I can’t remember the exact chronology, dad had changed cars again and now had a Golf GTI. A quick car but completely standard apart from safety mods and a sumpguard, requiring a different driving technique – neither Mini nor Escort, I learnt that it was best to keep braking until just after you turned the car in, which encouraged a bit of movement from the rear. But no pots. 1980 and possibly ’81 were once again in an RS2000, dad’s second, a bonny car and reasonable rally vehicle too (pictured). We never made the calendar in it, but would often vie for best Lancashire, best Clitheroe, best Team, or all three!

Dad would never even drive the first stage again. In 1982 I was back, having got a pay rise and bought the black flat-front RS2000 KKC 733P from Ian Parrington, the car which was to be the (second) love of my life for the next three momentous years…