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Just got off the phone to Richard, running nine Porsche 911s on the East African Safari Classic. Richard is at the end of stage three, waiting for the cars to come out. He spoke to me about their day so far – bear in mind the stage is not yet finished…
“The first two stages were fine. Bjorn is happy with the car, so set a pace he felt comfortable with and got settled in, not pushing too hard, but still managed to claim the fastest time.
“Travis Pastrana was fastest on the second stage. He is a really superb driver – very talented. Pushing hard early on can be a risky strategy but he knows what he is doing and has Fabrizia to guide him.
“Stage three is still ongoing and has been a bit tougher. There are reports of thick mud and that can be tricky to deal with. Bjorn came through it OK and has now finished the stage. Travis was held up for 14 minutes with we don’t know what as yet- possibly puncture. Steve Funk is on his way to us, Franz had a puncture but handled it fine and everyone else on our side seems OK.
“The only other real problem was for Steve Troman (pic). He was going well early on, in the top ten at the end of Stage 2, but had a crash in Stage 3 and has broken a steering arm. He is moving but with only one wheel to direct the car, and has just hit this mud near the stage end. It could be a long one for Steve.
“The first few days are always up and down: you can hit problems on stages as well as with road mileage. It’s been a lot of work to get where we are, but now it has started, we’re just glad to be going. The full story of day 1 will unfold in a few hours, but it looks like we might come out of it OK. You can never tell, though: things could all change in an hour.”
Everyone except Steve is now out of stage 3. More news as and when I get it.
