I recall attending an event at Whitecliff Bay (the Culver Club) in February 1990 which was unusual and rare in that Mike decided to compete. He drove Terry’s four-wheel drive Ford Sierra estate. Whilst this was a quick car, with (if memory serves me correctly) a turbo technics conversion, it was nonetheless still a road car and an estate at that.
Choosing to undertake just one run in each test, whilst other drivers had multiple runs in each with the fastest to count, Mike set the second fastest time in the first test and the fastest in the second, finishing first in class and second overall.
Mike’s driving was poetry in motion with perfect hand brake turns in the estate in a relatively small area very close to buildings. It was quite something and I recall James Kingswell, most probably the club’s top competing rally driver at the time, remarking as to the brilliance of Mike’s driving showing everyone else how it should be done.
Phil Rudd
30th September 2022