Response to the Comments / Survey 2000 Event
by Clive Molyneux Clerk of the Course
In an effort to answer some of the points raised on the running of the 2000
Tour of Mull I have clustered the main points raised through the questionnaire
and attempted to answer them. It would be impossible and impractical to try to
respond to each and every point raised, this will hopefully give people a better
understanding of why we do things the way we do.
Many comments on the Service halt on the Friday night section – too long 2
hours plus.
Agree entirely. Comments from earlier event surveys 1998/99 indicated that
competitors would like a change of route. As 2000 was my first year as Clerk of
the Course it seemed the ideal time to make the change. I was reasonably happy
with the way Saturday afternoon and night ran, however Friday was unacceptable
with the extended Service time. The problem I had was, I needed to get all the
cars at the back of the rally down the west side of the Island and into Gribun
before I could run the front of the rally back up the same road. In previous
years the Service time has been artificially absorbed by a longer road section
to the following stage, something I could not do in 2000. Coupled with the
delays in starting stage 1,2,3 I had no option other than to extend the Service
time on the night to approx. 2 hours. 2001 will not suffer from this problem.
Stage starts delayed more than normal.
Yes they were, this was purely down to the atrocious weather.
The Safety Officer and Chief Marshal had to spend a lot more time than normal
stopping in stages and putting arrows back up, re-taping driveways etc. which
had been blown away by the strong winds.
Results not as good a previous years.
We did suffer more than normal this year, the main problem again being the
weather causing land lines (which we use extensively for results) to go down.
We did suffer from equipment failure and manning problems, all of which are
recognised and will be addressed for 2001.
Stages started and finished in strange places.
Stage 1 started half way up Glen Aros for the simple reason that if I ran the
whole of the Glen linked to Calgary Bay it would be cleanable by about the first
15 cars.
By missing out the first 6 miles of this road (which is also the fastest
section) brought the average speed down and made it a viable stage.
The finish of Ensay/Laganulva on Saturday afternoon has also been mentioned,
this finishes at Eos Force as we have a sensitive PR area further down that
road. Its also on the limit of 8 miles which is the maximum stage length running
at 30 second starts.
Prize Presentation too long.
Agree, I can’t shut him up!!
Marshals did an outstanding job.
It’s great that so many people recognised this and commented on it. I would
also like to thank them for an outstanding contribution under such terrible
conditions. Hopefully 2001 will be better to us.