The Saturday, September 19th All British Run to Whistler saw a number of VMC Members take to the Sea to Sky Hwy. The Minis were grouped for a photo once again at Porteau Cove and included Minis driven by Larry Sutton (Ann), John Goolevitch (Jacquie), Rob Fram, Marco Li (Shaun), Martin Webber (with friend Corie), Jeremy Higgs (Quyen), Brian Ganden (Andrea) – whose Mini was on the road for the first time in 15 years, and Scottish guest David Thomas – with his Round The World Mini Van. Rick Higgs rode shotgun in Elaine’s new Brand X sedan. Sam Toes joined the group in Whistler. Rick/Elaine, Jeremy/Quyen and David Thomas over nighted in Whistler with Jeremy & Quyen heading north on Sunday for the Duffy Lake Road, Lillooet, the Fraser Canyon and home.

David Thomas who visited with VMC members at the Fall BBQ and on the Whistler Run, got home in time to Drive entry #91 in the 2009 Tour of Mull. His daughter Louise Thomas was his Co-Driver. Although the Clubman had been built up to a high spec there had been no time for testing and the engine was lost after the 2nd closed stage. In

David’s own words:

“Hi Rick, Thanks for the e-mail..........well the Rally came and went.......and the story is we did 2 stages round the Town and were heading for the 3rd stage when the car went on to 3cyd's.......a plug lead i thought so we stopped to look.......all was in place, so we set of only to have the engine misfire at high revs.........I put two and two together and figured we may have dropped a valve........the car had not had any testing time and the build spec had so much money put into it........1380cc with all the bits on twin 1/3.4 carbs to give it all the fuel it wanted......the gearbox also had all the bits with drop gears.

We had had trouble the days before turning the engine over.......due to...........to high compression so l think it was only time before it would all go wrong.......so we parked her up and helped the rest of the team.......Danny Harper was awesome in the MINI and has Balls of steel to get 3rd o/a and FWD...... but it was good to meet so many friends as you do each year on this event........am heading for Ireland in a few days. Take care

Dave”

In fact the top three finishers were two wheel drive. The rear wheel drive Ford Escort Mk2s came home in 1st and 2nd while Daniel Harper/Chris Campbell of Minisport brought the front wheel drive MINI Cooper S home in 3rd. Remarkable really when you look down the list of all wheel drive entrants.