Last weekend saw the running of the 39^th Tour of Mull on the Hebridean island of Mull. Team Autotec supported by Rallynotes.co.uk fielded a two car entry of Dave Miller and Andy Bailey in their Impreza seeded at 19^th and the MkII Escort of Dave Hopwood and Paul Grattidge starting the event at 24^th.

As Friday loomed the talk was on the ever changeable weather and if the local aces could once again take the top spot.

A poor tyre choice for the first loop of stages left the Escort of Hopwood and Grattidge struggling for grip in the damp and greasy conditions, this came to a head on the first stage when the pair went off the road. Luckily the landing was soft and no real damage was incurred.

The next two stages did little to regain confidence and as the pair entered service for the first time they where down in 41^st position.

No such problems befell the Impreza of Miller and Bailey as they eased themselves in to the pace. Just hovering outside the top 10 in 11^th the pair were happy with the car and looking forward to creeping up the leader board.

The rain held of for the last 3 stages of Friday night and with wets fitted to the front of the Escort Dave Hopwood was a lot happier with the feeling of the car and rocketed up the results jumping 20 places to end leg one in 21^st position. Miller and Bailey also managed to continue their climb and finished the night in 9^th place.

For leg 2 the daylight welcomed the teams for the next run around the island. The target for both crews was to continue at the same pace and not to take any massive risks. But this was to be the last section that the Escort would take place in.

The rally came to an end for Hopwood 2 miles in to the Calgary Bay stage, through the twisting Armco section a newly surfaced road was to catch out the pair ending with the Escort on its roof and the stage stopped to allow for recovery.

“We had run the same section last night and I took the same line, but it just got on the gravel at the edge of the road this time and I could not scrub off enough speed” said Hopwood after the incident. “We rolled where the road was quite narrow, so it took a bit of manovering to get the car the right way up!”

For the day time stages Dave Miller and Andy Bailey held their pace and did not have any problems or incidents. At the end of the leg the pair had dropped a place to 10^th as Tony Bardy in his Nissan GTIR attacked hard all afternoon.

“Bardy has been putting up top 5 stage times all afternoon!” said Dave Miller, “I don’t want to push to hard as there is still a long way to go!”

With just the last leg of 56 stage miles to go and the threat of rain holding off the pair in their Impreza hoped that the dark would not hold any of the problems of last year when they suffered electrical problems on the last stage and dropped almost a minute.

As it was to turn out it was others that where to have problems, Daniel Harpers Mini destroyed its suspension and punctures hampered others in the top 10. So the pair equalled their performance from last year and finished 8^th overall and second in class D.

“We are really happy with this result as there are more and more people in the event who are capable of a top 10 finish.” Said Dave Miller, “The car has run fine all weekend and we have not really had any scares. So all in all a great weekend!”