Category Archives: News

Carbon Positive

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Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally is open for business and looking to the future
  • Scottish island event reveals partnership with Carbon Positive Motorsport
  • Entries for the October 13-16 event open on Friday August 5 at 1930
  • Spectacular route planned for the 50th running of the Hebridean autumn classic
With the 50th running of the Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally in October, the event’s history is very much in focus. An association with Carbon Positive Motorsport demonstrates, however, that the future remains front and centre for the Scottish island’s biggest sporting event of the year. 
 
With entries for Britain’s longest rally of 2022 opening on Friday August 5 (head here at 1930 to secure one of the 150 places), there’s never been a better time to join forces with the ground-breaking Carbon Positive Motorsport to offset emissions from the October 13-16 event.
 
Competitors visiting the Tobermory-based event will be invited to sign up at www.carbonpositivemotorsport.com to ensure their carbon emissions will be negated by a programme of tree planting, environmental restoration and rewilding.
 
Clerk of the course Richard Crozier said: “We’re all very aware of the climate challenges we face right now and that’s why I’m delighted to talk about our new partnership with Carbon Positive Motorsport, the world’s first dedicated carbon offsetter in motorsport.
 
“It’s great to know that Britain’s longest rally will have minimal impact on the planet in terms of carbon emissions. We will work with the team at Carbon Positive Motorsport to calculate precisely how many litres of fuel and number of tyres have been used on the event and that dictates the extent of the Carbon Reduction Units required to cover that emission footprint.”
 
The cost of £29.50 towards the costs of running the programme is included automatically in the digital entry form, although competitors can untick the box to opt-out.
 
Carbon Positive Motorsport is also offering all Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally competitors and spectators a 20% discount on their standard web shop prices, to encourage all travelling to the event to help bring a greater positive environmental impact.
Crozier added: “Naturally, we would love to see all 150 cars running those stickers in October. This is something which is very important for us all.
 
“This announcement comes at a really exciting time for the event, with entries opening on Friday. We’ve worked so hard on a route which is worthy of the 50th running of what we regard to be the world’s best event.
 
“We’ve got a 30-mile stage on Saturday night, the return of the Tobermory stage and a raft of other route revisions coming. This year’s shaping up to be an absolute golden classic – an event well worthy of a typically packed entry.”

2022 Regulations

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Supplementary regulations for the 2022 Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally were released on 13th July, and can be downloaded from via the following link:

Mull-Rally-2022-Regulations (pdf)

This year sees a cause for celebration – the 50th running of our annual rally event on Mull.

As such, after a few years of a largely unchanged route, this year’s itinerary includes a few special additions to mark the occasion, and other subtle changes to keep things fresh. The main features of recent years remain: “Rally Zone” spectator area at the Glengorm crossroads in Tobermory on all three legs, and the final flat out run up Glen Aros and over the Mishnish Lochs to Tobermory for the final control in Ledaig Car Park. These are supplemented by the return – for the first time since 2014 – of the popular Tobermory town stage.

In a further nod to the event’s history, “The Long One” this year becomes “The Very Long One” –
30 miles of Loch Tuath / Calgary Bay / Glen Aros, last run as a “selective” in the 1980s. The successful shakedown at Duart Castle moves to Thursday, to help spread the load for our hardworking marshals, retaining 2 sessions to accommodate more competitors.

As always, our thanks to John & Ross Marshall of Beatson’s Building Supplies for sticking by the event and giving us their continued support, to everyone on the island for letting us use their roads and to all the support facilities and marshals who ensure that the sport can take place safely. Thanks also to Argyll & Bute Council and Police Scotland for their pro-active support in
helping us to organise the event. We are also grateful for the ongoing support of Event Scotland, which recognises the global reach of the Mull Rally.

Entries will open at 19:30 on Friday 5th August.

We look forward to welcoming you all to Mull over the weekend of 13th – 16th October, and to continuing the legacy that is rallying on this special island.

Unseeded entry list

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The unseeded entry list has been published today and can be found here, and also from the Competitors menu.

Competitors with numbers 500+ are the reserves and they are listed in the order they will be offered a place if and when others withdraw.

Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally cancelled

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  • Tobermory-based event cancelled due to COVID-19 uncertainty
  • Organisers committed to returning with a bigger and – even – better 2021 event
  • News brings disappointment to crews, competitors and officials around the world

Mishnish Lochs will stay silent in October. There’ll be no Group 4 roar up the Glen and the Long One… well, it’ll be shorter than normal this time around.

The Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally – planned for October 8-11 – has been cancelled.

Clerk of the Course Andy Jardine admitted the decision was dictated by ongoing uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. While preparations for the iconic Scottish island rally had been moving forward, with the team behind the sell-out event closely monitoring the Scottish Government’s ‘route out of lockdown,’ the organisers are unwilling to proceed given the possible risk of spreading the virus.

Jardine said: “It was looking good for a while. October seemed so far off and things were opening up again, but now the end of July is looming and we just can’t commit to running the rally not knowing how the situation will develop. It’s tough for the team as we put a lot of effort into developing different ways to work with the coronavirus restrictions, but it isn’t practical to cover all the eventualities and keep everybody safe.

“This year’s been unprecedented in the way we’ve seen our sport simply stopped in its tracks by this pandemic. But we have to remember that an awful lot of people have been – and continue to be – affected in the most tragic way by coronavirus.”

Mull Car Club Chairman, Fred Maclean added: “While some of the island is preparing for some sort of tourist season in the weeks ahead, there remains uncertainty and many places are not opening. Mull has remained apparently COVID-free throughout the lockdown period and there is a nervousness about what might happen when visitors return.

“This is the right decision for Mull and to ensure the rally is welcomed back in, hopefully, happier times in 2021.”

Demand for Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally remains exceptional, with competitors from across the world keeping in regular contact with the organisers in the hope of securing a place, were the 2020 event to run. Jardine’s keen, however, this enforced break is used to take a look at ways to make a great rally even better.

Jardine said: “After the event missed a couple of years due to the insurance issue, we got the overwhelming message that the Mull Rally was still a competitors’ favourite when we broke the internet as entries opened in 2019.

“This has energised the team to use this break to take a step back and think about a review of the format of the event and we’ll be getting our heads together in the next couple of months to see what can be done to freshen it up a bit.

“It goes without saying, none of our Octobers will be the same this year. We’ll all spend a bit longer watching Peter Taylor’s run through Gribun on YouTube! But the key thing – the only thing – is to stay healthy, keep the island healthy and be back, bigger and better next time.”