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Update after Day 6 from the EASR Press Office. Team Tuthill took a few hard knocks today, but there are a number of upsides. We are (amazingly) only six minutes off the lead, Bjorn closed the day with a convincing win on the final stage and no one was seriously hurt in any of the incidents – apart from Richard, who was hit in the hand with a grinder. Hospital stitched him up and he is OK.
Another upside is Patrick Njiru, who has taken over the driving from Travis Pastrana. Starting 21st, Njiru finished the day 17th! He was 8th quickest on the last stage. Here’s hoping this continues! Let’s read the EASR report.
Fortunes turned yet again on the sixth day of the Kenya Airways East African Safari, proving just how unpredictable this unique event can be.
Despite having a forty minute lead at the start of the day, the rally leaders Björn and Mathias Waldegård moved down to second place overall after a collision with a truck that was stuck in a mud hole right at the end of the second section.
“We saw the truck but I took the wrong side despite what my navigator told me,” said Björn. “The wheels got stuck in a rut and I couldn’t get them out, so we clipped the corner of the lorry on the right hand side. It’s not easy to make a clean Safari even for an old fox!”
The Tuthill Porsche 911’s roll cage was badly damaged, so it had to be fixed en route to the third section and they incurred 41 minutes as road penalties. This has put Geoff Bell and Tim Challen into the lead in their Datsun 260Z, by six and a half minutes.
Bell, who had been setting excellent times all day, was elated when he arrived at Naivasha. “I’m just glad Bjorn and Mathias are not hurt,” he said. “But I do think perhaps we should stop the rally here!! Unfortunately I think the legend will be back tomorrow.” The Porsche 911 of Gérard Marcy and Stéphane Prévot has moved into third place, as Steven Funk and Andrew Doig had some problems with following other cars in the final section. The gap from second to third position is over an hour.
Drama started early on Day 6. Half-way through the first section, a flash flood inundated a river crossing, just after the first ten cars had passed through. The rest of the competitors were left stranded on the other side and had to be re-routed to the start of the second section at Kajiado. Unfortunately the third-placed Porsche 911 of Steven Funk passed the first river crossing only to find a flash flood in a second river, leaving them stranded between the two until the water subsided.
Behind them, Alastair Cavenagh and Frank Tundo were the last car into the first river but their Ford Escort was stuck for some time before joining Funk. It was a real “tale of two rivers”. Many of the later crews got stuck in mud at the beginning of the first section but then took the re-route from the river, whilst the last few crews didn’t start the section and went straight to the second section.
Of those who completed the first section, Stig Blomqvist and Ana Goni set fastest time by over two and a half minutes in their Ford Escort. Grégoire de Mévius and Alain Guehennec set second fastest time in their Porsche 911. Third fastest on this section was the second-placed overall Datsun 260Z of Geoff Bell who was already closing the gap on the rally leader.
Waldegård was over eight minutes slower than the fastest time set on this section by his fellow Swede Blomqvist. Meanwhile current Kenyan Rally Champion Ian Duncan and co-driver Amaar Slatch got stuck earlier in the section and lost a lot of time but made it through the section.
“We got stuck for about ten minutes but the river crossing later on wasn’t a problem when we went through.” Apart from the ten crews that managed to pass the river crossings, the rest of the crews were given a notional time for the section (all identical to Duncan as we reported earlier).
The second section was relatively short for the Safari at just under 50 km, but was wet and slippery in places. Bell set the fastest time with Blomqvist over a minute behind and Waldegård setting third fastest time for this section, despite his incident with the truck. Due to the earlier problems with the floods on the first section there was a regroup at Whistling Thorns where Waldegård’s damaged rollcage was deemed unsafe by chief scrutineer Karl-Heinz Goldstein.
Since the holding area is parc fermé no work could be done on the car until it was back on the road section, which is where Waldegård incurred his penalties. It was also where Richard Tuthill picked up an almost catastrophic hand injury from a loose grinder – he had to go to hospital with it but is all stitched up again now.
The final Suswa section of the day was a classic Safari stage. Waldegård was clearly driving hard to make up time, setting fastest time by a minute and a half from de Mévius whilst Duncan took third fastest. Unfortunately, Funk had problems on this section and slipped down to fifth place behind Marcy and Blomqvist.
Once again the Safari has sprung another surprise on its competitors and there are still another three days to go. With some hard and rough roads around Lake Baringo tomorrow, there could be yet another change of fortunes to come.
To sum up: an an absolutely incredible day – for all the wrong reasons. But we will keep racing: that is what it’s all about!
