Day Five: Tobermory to Oban

The penultimate day of this year's event saw crews head out of Tobermory after a harbourside test of judgement and nerve - a reverse version of yesterday's Strontian test, this time requiring cars to back up to a marker - as close as possible - without hitting it. There were some extraordinarily good performances. One crew came within 2 cm of the marker; two within 3cm; and one within 4cm. As no penalties were awarded for a measurement of less than 5cm, they went 'clean'.

More of the famous Tour of Mull rally stages followed. If crews needed any proof that they were travelling in the wheeltracks of this famous rally, there were marks aplenty on the road, where crew after crew first 'yumps' and then bottoms out, to continue flat out towards the next Time Control.

For our rally cars, and in daylight, the tight roads of the north-west of the island were tough to manage at a set speed of around 27 mph or even lower in places. But what fantastic views! There was an unusual Route Check after the longest Regularity of the event: crews forsook their cars to take the foot ferry across to St Columba's Isle, Iona - gateway to Christianity in Britain. Everyone remembered to take their timecards with them for this short excursion and lunch break.

At the evening's get-together at Oban Distillery and with one day to go to the finish, Ian Crammond, one of eleven remaining Gold medal contenders, pointed out that he'd had his worst day so far: 'We've put on 20 penalties today, and only had 33 all week up to this morning. But we're still on Gold, leading the Regularity competition and well placed to grab the Driving Tests as well. It could go either way tomorrow.'

Paul Wignall in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta leads Ian Crammond by just four seconds in the driving tests, and one test out of the four today is one that neither have attempted before. It should make an excellent finale.

Meanwhile, Paul Hernaman and Ray Crowther in the Porsche 911 Carrera look to be in trouble. They completed the day on Mull with a broken torsion bar. Amazingly, they still managed to equal fastest time of the day with 60 seconds at the Duart Castle driving test - a great tribute to their commitment, to the car's inherent handling and speed, and to Paul's driving skills. They were hoping to be able to get a replacement freighted to Oban overnight. For the sake of a great final day's tussle with Ian Crammond in the Regularity stakes, we hope they succeed.

Meanwhile, Ian's team, the SL Allstars are well ahead in the competition for the Talisker Trophy, the premier award of the event. They look invincible. But they are taking nothing for granted. A major error or a car problem could turn things around in moments.

A Ferry too Fast
One of the prime rules of road rallying - the three-quarters rule - had a blind eye turned to it on Thursday - because it was broken while crew and car were on a ferry! Malcolm Pickering and Derek McConnell were unlucky to lose all the electrics of their Sunbeam Tiger for a while after the solenoid of the starter motor engaged itself as they were running at around 4,000 rpm. It blew the starter apart, and the rest of the system was pretty sick until they managed to sort it, losing an hour and four minutes - and a number of time controls - by the time they checked in at Lochaline for the crossing to Mull. But because of generous time allowances, they managed to check off the ferry at the next MC exactly on time. The rule is designed to prevent speeding and dangerous driving on the public highway, so event officials thought it inappropriate to penalise the crew. They may be relieved, but of course it won't make up for the loss of all medal chances they incurred when their electrics blew in the first place.

David Barnett
Rest and be Thankful
Those who were at the Talisker Ceilidh will have heard Denis Cardell's short tribute to David Barnett, who lost a long battle with cancer a few days before the start of this year's event. David was one of our most experienced and stalwart marshals: just three weeks before he died he intended to marshal on Colin Francis's Twelve-car event in the Cotswolds and then come over to Silverstone for the Historic Festival and help out on the HERO stand there. He had also desperately wanted to marshal on this year's Classic Malts. It was not to be, but - and we are sure David would have wanted this - his ashes have been travelling the full route of the event in one of our course cars. George Cowling, with whom David usually marshalled, will be on duty once again today as crews head up Rest and be Thankful - one of the great traditional hillclimb venues. Everyone who knew David agrees that scattering his ashes here will be a fitting tribute. 'And', adds Denis with an impish grin, 'if we run out of flour for the start line, maybe David will help us make it up.' Malteser is sure that David would have no objection there, either - in fact, he would probably be the first to volunteer. Rest in peace, David - except when the next Classic Malts Rally comes past you.