Mulldave TV

Thanks to Becky Kirvan for the loan of her in-car camera!

Stage 4: Mishnish Lochs


Stage 7: Loch Tuath


Stage 8: Calgary


Stage 9: Mishnish Lochs


Stage 10: Gribun


Stage 11: Loch Scridain


Stage 14: Loch Scridain

Nearly a disaster on the Lochs... but they've finished!

A lucky escape in the Lochs stage when t'Astra went off the road after the windscreen got misted up following a leaking washer fluid bottle, fortunately Dave kept his foot down and the car got back on the track.

7 places made up on the last stage and Dave and Caroline have finished in a brilliant 32nd place. Off to Tob for the finish...


...and here we are!

A brilliant few days, well done to the rally organisers for a great event.

Mmmmmmm pie :)

Getting ready for the final leg

With around 55 miles of stages to go the service crew do their final checks on t'Astra and fit the spotlights.

And Mal appears to be taking aim before firing!

Service Daves make a sign!

While waiting for Dave and Caroline to get back from the stages the service Daves decided to make a sign for Mulldave HQ.

<<<< and there it is!

Leaderboard climb continues in Leg 2

The daytime stages are now complete and Dave and Caroline have moved up to 40th place.

No major problems although the soft compound tyres went off on the Lochs stage causing a bit of time loss and the Astra had a slight moment on the Calgary Steps.

Time for tea!

A great start for the Mulldaves

Leg 1 of the Mull Rally is finished and the Mulldaves have had an excellent run to 47th from a start number of 85. A storming drive on the first stage saw Dave and Caroline catch and overtake the car a minute ahead of him within a few miles.

The Astra has been troublefree with just routine checks planned for the morning.

Leg 2 starts with the Loch Tuath stage and the Mulldaves will be starting around lunchtime.

Scrutineering passed, chips eaten

Here's t'Astra going through scrutineering at the Tobermory distillery.

After being passed to start the rally some of the team headed to the famous chip van for a healthy pre-rally lunch :)

We're off to scrutineering

Jobs completed and in-car camera installed, we're off doon the road to Tob for scrutineering and some lunch.

What a pretty view we have from our HQ!

Mulldaves go to school

Some of the Mulldaves went to Tobermory High School this afternoon with Team Manager Medich giving a talk on rally safety to all the kids. Driver Dave was also there wi t'Astra on display. The kids all got goodie bags from Tunnocks and three of them won a spin with Callum Duffy (lucky sods!).

Team Mulldave ready to go

On the eve of the Mull Rally Team Mulldave have almost completed their preparations. Recceing has gone well and the crew just have a few minor jobs to do on the car before scrutineering tomorrow.

Stay tuned to see how the Mulldaves get on!

Mulldave's HQ

The Mulldaves are on the island and here's a pic of the team HQ, a big huge farmhouse near Salen.

The service tent is set up and 5,000 sticks have been found to throw for the dogs.

Edwards to take on Isle of Mull rally challenge

Bolton-le-Sands rally driver Dave Edwards is completing preparations for his annual battle with the tight and tricky roads of the Isle of Mull where he will contest the Mull Rally for the third time in early October.

The event, which has been held on the island for 40 years, is one of the toughest in the UK with a lot of the competition taking place through the night. All the rally stages are on closed public roads which are very testing in the dry and treacherous in the wet.

Edwards has finished the event on the two occasions he has competed, gaining valuable experience and confidence with every mile. In 2009 he finished a brilliant 47th from a start number of 145 and his aim this year is to finish even higher up the leaderboard.

Although he will use the same Vauxhall Astra GSi as previously Edwards will have a new co-driver for the event. Regular co-driver Rachel Medich is acting as Team Manager this year with Brampton’s Caroline Lodge taking up the navigator role. Lodge is a very experienced co-driver but, although she has attended the rally many times, she has never competed on Mull.

"It’s going to take a while to get used to a new co-driver," said Edwards. "You cannot take any risks on the Mull roads so we’ll take our time and get into the swing of things. We’re both a bit apprehensive but I’m sure once we get started it’ll be fine."

Edwards and his team have made several changes to the car from last year. A dog box has been fitted and a new exhaust system together with some rewiring after a nasty experience on the 2009 event when all the lights went out after a heavy landing. The car has been lightened too which should give it some extra speed.

"I’m hoping for a dry event so that I can make use of the car’s extra speed but the weather on Mull never goes to plan, you can start of a stage in dry conditions and it can be torrential rain within a few miles. Choosing the correct tyres is very difficult. Hopefully the rewiring will avoid a repeat of last year's incident with the lights, I definitely don't want to experience that again!"

With just over two weeks to go to the event Edwards is busy making arrangements for his chase car and service crew.

"We have service breaks in the middle of the night so we have to sort out proper lighting for the service crew. The crew are a vital part of the team and I’m very fortunate to have a top notch experienced bunch of guys to help us fix anything that goes wrong."

"At the moment I'm feeling a mix of worry and excitement, doing the rally is a huge challenge but I'm confident that all the team are very much up for it."

Edwards is looking for company sponsorship for his Mull challenge and interested companies are invited to get in touch via songasport@gmail.com.

The team are planning to provide live reports of their progress on the event with updates hopefully being available on www.mudmagnetrallying.co.uk and www.twitter.com/mulldaves throughout the rally.

Weeton outing ends in a tree

I went to Weeton to co-drive for Marcus Tinsley on the SMC Stages in his new Peugeot 205. We were doing well, leading the class, but then we were flying along a straight and something broke. A magnetic tree pulled us towards it and made rather a mess of the front of the car. Fortunately we were both ok.

Cake sell out sensation in Greystoke

Thanks to everyone who bought one of my cakes at the Malcolm Wilson Rally, we sold every one of them and managed to raise over £140 for the Roxburgh House hospice. Excellent!

EMMU on t'internet!

Please check out the new website for the EMMU rescue unit that Gary at Songasport has built for us, click www.emmu.co.uk to have a wee look :)