TWELVE months ago Daniel Barritt claimed his first ever Tunnocks Tour of Mull victory alongside 12-times winner and island resident Neil MacKinnon.

And the 27-year-old international navigator from Barrowford did it again last weekend – this time guiding MacKinnon’s son Paul to his maiden win.

The pair led from start to finish, but the outcome was only decided on the final stage in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Just nine seconds separated them from Calum and Iain Duffy after a gruelling 150 miles of stages – one of the closest Mull finishes ever.

“It was a fantastic end to a fantastic rally, that last stage was something else,” said Barritt, who has been contesting the British and Production World Championships this year.

“We spent a lot of time preparing the notes and talking to Paul about where to push and where to hold back, and it worked perfectly.

“It’s only his third season of rallying, and the car is only group N, but he’s a very good driver. The pace of the front end was very, very quick all weekend.”

Billed as the ‘greatest rally in the world’, the ferocious pace of the event created problems for many of the crews, with five going out on the very first stage.

Hot favourite and number one seed Neil MacKinnon retired when the oil temperature of his Subaru Impreza WRC soared during the opening test.

MacKinnon tried to continue after stopping to cool off, but was eventually forced to quit on stage three.

By that time, his 25-year-old son had begun to stamp his authority on the rally, setting the fastest time on the first four stages to open up a 33-second lead over the Duffy brothers, with Minisport men Daniel Harper and Chris Campbell well-placed in fourth.

Duffy responded with five fastest times on stages five, six and seven to set the scene for a thrilling duel on the final night.

Going into the last 14 miles of tarmac, there was now 38 seconds gap, and victory looked assured for Mackinnon, so long as nothing went wrong.

However, running first on the stage, disaster struck when MacKinnon locked up his brakes on a patch of mud and went off the road.

Luckily, he was able to lock the diffs on his Mitsubishi Evo and reverse out, and with Duffy’s lights in his mirrors and the bumper hanging off, Mackinnon made it to end of the stage to claim a well-deserved and hard-fought victory.

By comparison, the pace of Willie Bonniwell, James MacGillivray and Tristan Pye was almost sedate in third, fourth and fifth, but one of the drives of the rally came from Cumbrian youngster Kris Hall, who brought his Ford Fiesta home in sixth place.

Blackburn’s Tugs Sherrington and Sam Bould scored their best ever-finish, coming home in ninth place and claiming the Best Lancashire Crew award.

Withnell’s John Swinscoe, with wife Paula on the maps, finished 15th to collect the Best Mixed Crew award in their Rallytech Mitsubishi Evo, despite losing power early on with a broken turbo hose, and having to change a puncture in stage.

Starting at car 138, Chris Melling and Andrew Peak, from Oswaldtwistle, climbed 95 places to finish an excellent 43rd in their Subaru Impreza.

Ian and Gary Dawes brought their BMW Cooper S home in 48th place – and Best Clitheroe DMC crew – with Mini men Jim Brindle and Paul Whittaker 53rd.

Three places behind was former Oswaldtwistle navigator Phil Peak and driver Giles Phillips, with Dave Calvert and David Fotheringham 64th.

Todmorden’s Hadyn Williams and Chris Sanderson pedalled their group A Nissan Micra to 65th, and rounding off the local finishers were Rob Eastwood and Ben Anderson, 70th in their Morris Mini and Michael Judson and Paul Blanchard 83rd in their Vauxhall Astra.

John Easson Award winner Phil Scholes went out on stage seven after spinning off the road in his Peugeot 205GTi.

But Scholes, from Blackburn, and co-driver Jamie Foster returned for the Saturday Evening Trophy rally and finished third overall.