DEMAND OVERWHELMING FOR MULL RALLY’S RETURN
Popular Scottish event has a full entry roster already – minutes after opening
The Mull Rally broke the internet – or at least its own webpage – when it was overwhelmed by entries on Friday night but still managed to register 174 cars in just 53 minutes.
The organisers of the October event, which will run with a capacity 150-car entry, admitted they were astonished at the speed with which the entry filled, breaking their previous record which stood at 24 hours.
Clerk of the course for what will be the 50th anniversary of the Mull Rally Andy Jardine told Motorsport News: “We went live with the entries at 1930hrs on Friday night and they were coming in immediately. It didn’t take long for the website to crash, the system just couldn’t cope with the demand. We got it back up and less than an hour later we were comfortably full.
“Obviously we’re delighted with the response and are now looking to deliver a rally which will live up to the expectation and demand from the crews.”
Having registered their entries, crews had to lodge the entry fee within five days. Jardine’s deputy Iain Campbell pointed out that those on the reserve list shouldn’t lose heart.
Campbell added: “We’ve seen down the years that not everybody who gets an entry when they go live actually takes it up. There will be some entries lost to broken engines, broken wallets, marriages… If the money’s not received from all entries before close of play Tuesday, then we will start going down through the reserves and asking folk to join us in their place.
“This is a fantastic way for us to start the build-up for the golden anniversary of this event. We hoped we might be able to fill the entry and even though we haven’t run since 2016, it’s nice to see people haven’t forgotten us.
“Breaking the website is something special – I’m not sure even Kim Kardashian has broken her website with new material as quickly as we did! It’s amazing.”
The event returns for the first time since insurance issues forced it off the calendar in 2017.