van de nieuwsgroep (alt.autos.mini):

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> this should put a wee smile on your faces
> Daniel Harper/Chris Campbell (minisport) only took one of those kid-on
> things to the tour of Mull, they had been in a field , hit a rock but on
> stage 17 and lying 5th o/r they did try to make it fly only crash off on
the
> beach at Gribun big style car wrecked,{guys ok) but I must admit it did
> sound good when its going flat out maybe its time they went back to a real
> mini
> cheers Hamish
>
>


I know, cos I was there, spectating on Saturday afternoon and Saturday
night/Sunday morning.

Some context for the furriners: The Tour of Mull runs on the Scottish Isle
of Mull, where by act of parliament they can close the public roads for a
few hours at a time one weekend in the year. The roads used are narrow,
twisty and bumpy single-track tarmac lanes over hills and along sea cliffs.
Sheer power is useful, but driver ability and commitment are more important.
Mull is widely known as "The best Rally in the World", and was christened
thus by Ian Grindrod, who navigated professionally at world
championship level, and still competed on this event for fun until last
year.
Now he helps run it.

The rally runs from Friday night till Sunday morning. 150 cars - including
Subaru and Mitsubishi and Cosworth 4wd turbo cars, Metro 6R4s, etc, - start,
and this year 72 finished.
Harper was 5th overall for much of the rally, by far the highest placed FWD
car, and he drove it like a proper mini - tidy and committed, hard on the
power or hard on the brakes. It was the first time I ever thought, hey, I
might like one of those. Eventually he crashed onto a rocky beach. There are
few minor accidents on Mull. The only real mini to finish was local lady
Carol MacCrone's, in 63rd.

Daniel won the rally a two years ago with a Lancer, but to show he's a good
guy really, was 10th overall in a proper mini before that.

Minispares is the Harper family business, they do bits for real ones and
BINIS too.

The rally web site is www.2300club.org

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FWIW,
Theo van den Bogaard

M.a.w. de jongesn van MiniSport zijn gecrasht met de Mini2 rallywagen die ze daar hebben. Zonde. Maar ze zetten hem vast wel weer in elkaar, hoort er allemaal bij.