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Forty-three cars started the third day of the 2015 East African Classic Safari Rally, leaving Amboseli for two of the most delightful sections so far (CS8 was cancelled at the end of day 2 due to excessive water and difficult conditions). As the cars returned to the service park, the overwhelming impression from the drivers was of two thrilling stages. “This is what rallying is about,” said Aslam Khan in his Porsche 911. “The cars are working, the notes are great: you just feel the whole process.”
Richard Goransson in Tuthill-built car number 6 set achieved the fastest time on CS7, the opening stage of day 3, going two minutes faster than Stig in the first section of the day. “We caught Stig in the dust and managed to take back about two minutes in the first section,” said co-driver, Emil Axelsson. “At times we found the navigation more tricky and there were moments where we had to decide from several tracks, so this is a good result.”
At the end of day 3, Stig Blomqvist and Stéphane Prévot continued to hold the overall lead. “Today was a sweet day,” said Stig. “We had no problems getting around.” Alastair Cavenagh and Gavin Laurence hit problems by getting lost for a minute and a half on stage two. “I know this could end up costing us time at the end of the day,” said Alastair.
David von Schinkel and Per Bjorkman in the pink Tuthill-built Porsche had a good day 3, given that their rally nearly ended completely with a serious crash on day 2. “We got stuck once on the first stage and had to wait for fifteen minutes for a Ford to get through the water,’ said David. “We regret our mistakes yesterday and are a little bit tired, but we did alright.”
Elsewhere in the Tuthill Porsche ranks, Gilberto Sandretto and Fabrizia Pons had to work hard in their Tuthill 911, when their muddy day 2 dragged on to day 3. “We spun after the river in a big mud hole,” said Fabrizia. “We were so pleased to get through the river and then we hit that!”
2015 East African Safari Classic Rally Day 4
Day 4 was another long one, with a 415 kilometre day for the cars taking us through from Kenya to Tanzania. Despite suffering several punctures throughout the day, Stig Blomqvist’s blue Tuthill Porsche 911 was the first to arrive at the Mto wa Mbu service park.
Goransson/Axelsson also lost time with a puncture, but held on to second position, just a minute behind Blomqvist. Very few competitors escaped without tyre damage on the dry, stony ground of Tanzania: perhaps the worst affected was Richard Jackson in car 25, who scrubbed his back tyres down to the canvas in CS11.
Joakim Roman and Jorgan Fornander dropped ten minutes in the day’s second stage due to getting lost in the dust. David von Shinkel and Per Bjorkman had another interesting run in the pink 911, burning out their clutch by day’s end. “It was another tricky day,” said David “At the start of the first stage, I got stuck and spun around, and I said the navigator was wrong and took another way. Then the clutch went, so we had to be very careful in the last two stages.”
Coming next: Rest Day
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