The number 13 featured prominently throughout the weekend but I'm not superstitious so wasn't phased by it!

The executive summary is we retired on the Saturday afternoon after rear suspension and prop shaft failure but still had a great weekend. We were lying 13th at the end of the Friday night.

The week leading up to the event was wet with everyone predicting rain, this was good news for Linda managing to sell some of those fancy rally wetsuits at scrutineering (over £200 in DT catalogue, see Linda for £100 deal!). After passing scrutineering there was nothing else to do than wait and watch the rain continue to fall. I hung off as late as possible on tyre choice, watching the bbc web site which showed some hope it might dry up.

With this info I decided (well Callum decided as he'd already fitted the wheels to the car) to run the uncut Dunlop slicks all round. A risky call as pretty much everyone else went on inters or full wets. I know form experience even when it is wet the water doesn't lie on the road apart from a few exceptions. I felt pretty nervous at the start, not sure why, maybe just not having competed for a year, or knowing the first stage was a blast up the super fast Glen to Dervaig and over the hill road.

The Glen was as awesome as ever, with some new black tar in the middle adding to the excitement. It’s a stage where if your confidence is high you can go very fast for a long time over the bumps and open corners (those who've driven up it will know what I mean!) I tried to break myself in gently keen to make it through rather than break any records, the only bit I found really tricky was at Dervaig where we crashed the Nova a few years back.

It was very slippy round the edge of the sea before heading up the Hill road. Stages 2 and 3 down Gribun and along Scridain were good, the two of them are awesome to drive, starting along the foreshore, very bumpy but surprisingly fast and with Gribun finishing up the hill after the mega long flat out bit up to the phone box. The car was handling pretty well, only kicking up the rear on the sharper jumps, I was taking it easy over the big stuff with discression being the better part of valour.

My confidence was growing and the feeling coming back with the car. We were sorry to see Neil Mackinnon parked up at the end of Gribun with partially seized engine, so no chance of him achieving 13 victories. The next loop after service up round the north end of the island was going well until unluckily we had a rear puncture (first in 14 events that hasn't been part of a big crash). The car was dancing about and wanted to go left earlier than planned, I chose to let it rather than end up off the road at the corner, over some small rocks and the tyre went down!

We dropped 5 secs to Eddie O'Donnell so luckily not too much time lost. More luckily we managed to change the puncture in dead time at the next arrival, about 500 yds after the last stage so no lost road time! Also unluckily there was a photographer there to catch Duncan and I running round like something from outer space with our suits and helmets on changing the wheel in the dark.

I took it easy at the start of the next stage with the spare being a cut inter, cold and not sure of the pressure, it heated up OK and felt fine after a couple of miles though. We finished the leg at Salen and managed to a quick chat with Chris Booker and Nicola Anderson (Teambrowns 3rd driver) still grinning from ear to ear after completing their first three stages without any problems. Chris's was bouncing with enthusiasm and excitement and the realisation he was actually competing, and wondering why he hadn't entered before.

A look through the results before heading for bed showed us in 13th place, the boys at front were in a league of their own with young Paul Mackinnon and Calum Duffy locked in a very high speed battle. You could see a few new much younger names appearing on the list, with Kris Hall in 4th, some of the local youngsters were also flying although John Paterson's run ended after an off on the last fri night stage, he was lying 14th in Linda's old 1400 Nova at the time! Stevie was getting to grips with his new notes and navigator Andrew Roughead with his pace gradually increasing as the event went on, 24th at end of Fri night.

On Saturday morning with dry weather forecast it was time for a couple of new tyres, we'd been using old stuff on the Friday night. The islands scenery is stunning, especially when the sun shines with views of the hills in full autumn colour and the light shimmering off the surface of the sea. It surprising how much you see even when your competing! The first stage went well up Loch Tuath except for a minor moment on some standing water and a light shower as we climbed up to the highest point on the stage. Next stage was using part of the Calgary stage starting at the beach and being run twice.

We were a minute away from our start time when a radiator hose blew off dumping all the coolant on the road. Luckily the marshals turned a blind eye while we made some repairs using a borrowed drink bottle and some water from a stream (one thing Mull is great for is water, on demand almost anywhere!) we eventually shot off into the stage but were waved down within a mile, unfortunately Dave Hopwood had rolled his immaculate Mk2 on a tight K right between a cliff and some Armco blocking the road. Duncan and I helped right the car and then headed off to the next radio point, the car felt as if something was wrong with the steering, it was extremely light and vague, like a soft tyre or driving on snow or something! I checked the wheels at the radio point, but found nothing wrong, it was just the car moving about on all the loose gravel, we chugged through the rest of the stage and back round for our second attempt.

There was more drama as several others went off on the stage with delays, mostly due to the loose gravel but also over exuberance on a bumpy uphill stretch known as the "Steps" (site of our demise couple of years back, evidence still on You tube, and check out "Cassidy tour of Mull 2008"). We eventually set off again this time making about 2 miles into the stage when just after going up into 5th to attack a blind crest and jump something went bang in the rear of the car, there was a fair bit of clattering and banging and something flew of the car and we coasted to a halt, two of the 4 link bars snapped at the rose joints and the prop shaft broke the rear joint and went exit stage left into a field.

I can hear Keith telling me still I should have fitted heavy duty 4 link bars so with hindsight its not a surprise they broke! They'd done about three Mulls. After alerting the following competitors and rally HQ we spent the rest of the time spectating. Unluckily for us Duncan had given away our emergency food rations to the marshals at the stage start, 4 dark chocolate tunnocks caramel wafers, in thanks for helping with the water hose, and not thinking we'd need them! Luckily though a couple were spectating at the lay-by we parked up in and came to the rescue with Kit Kats and some Irn Bru.

It was a beautiful afternoon, with great views to the inner Hebrides from our lofty location looking back towards Calgary. The rally action came and went with some excitement as Chris and Nicola passed, Chris was too busy watching us waving with encouragement he missed his original braking point for the next corner, we just thought he was driving well as he still made the corner, although he says it didn't quite feel like that in the car! It took an age for Andy Tong and Duncan Cameron to recover us as there was a lot of spectator traffic to clear once the road opened. Once back at Olives (Duncan's mum) the boys set about patching up the car. Callum, Colin, Steven, Gary and Gordon all had a hand in making her road worthy juggling their time trying to keep the other two cars going for Stevie and Chris. Luckily we had some spares kindly lent by Keith and the one L'd Calum. The fight at the front was still on with young Mackinnon edging in front of Duffy, there were plenty stage records being broken. Stevie had climbed up to 16th O/A and managed a family stage record on Scridain, Chris and Nicola were still grinning profusely and surfing the adrenaline wave that comes with competing, their pace too was improving with stories of moments as they learned what's possible on the islands tortuous roads.

We entered the Sat night Trophy rally but it ended early, about 3/4 of a mile into the long one SS13, something in the rear diff let go, it must have been damaged earlier when the suspension and prop broke! Luckily we didn't have long to wait, about ten minutes and the road was open, we limped back to Tobermory at 20mph having to maintain forward load on the diff by left foot braking all the way or else the noise was unbearable. After a nice cup of tea and check of the results to see how Stevie and Chris were doing we headed over to Dervaig to spectate on the last stage. Paul and Calum were still battling up front although Paul looked to have the upper hand, Stevie was going even quicker up to 13th at service with three stages to go. Chris was still going really well relying on the adrenaline to stave off the tiredness. Next bit of bad luck was when my phone rang just as we arrived in Dervaig (which was a surprise as my phone is next to useless at getting reception), it was Andrew Roughead with the bad news that Stevie and him had gone off, on the bad jump at the end of Gribun near Knock farm. They were both OK but car would need some new front suspension or a suspended tow! After a bit of organising the troops Andy Tong drove Linda and I down to meet Stevie.

By the time we arrived the car had been recovered to the end of the stage and Colin was nearly finished a temporary repair. We loaded the car onto the trailer and headed home keen to go to bed as lack of sleep was catching up on us all. We spent some time loading the van and trailer for Colin to head off to the ferry queue. Duncan and Ian waited at the finish for Chris and Nicola and fan fared them in. The celebrations didn't last long as poor Chris's body was shutting down now that his adrenaline level was dropping and tiredness was taking over. They finished 77th from a 159 start so did really well, it's an achievement to finish the event (as I'm learning more and more!).

The Sunday celebrations were really good as ever with a great atmosphere in the town, lots of talk of what might have been and scheming for next year!

I feel really lucky to be able to take part in such a great event, and its with the support of many friends and family that make it all possible.

The big thankyous:-

Duncan, Linda, Olive, Callum, Chris, Steven C, Colin, Gordon, Gary, Andy, Duncan C, Keith, Calum, Ed
George at the Five Mile Garage
Neil Philip stickers and car bodywork, Ellon

Itsthe40thnextyearandbuildingupalreadytobeanawesomeevent.

Doug Weir