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The day 8 data is in, and its been a decent day for the Tuthill Porsche team. Though it was disappointing to lose car 24 – the Tanzanite Blue 911 that had carried Travis Pastrana and Fabrizia Pons to such epic heights amongst the fans and within our own team – we had a good day with our other drivers.
It’s hard to pick a driver of the day from our ranks. Yes, we have Björn out in front and it’s great to head into the last day with a lead, but further down the field, Steve Funk had an amazing day’s rallying, as did Paolo Faldini!
Funk started 7th on the last stage of the day, ten minutes behind de Mévius. At the end of the stage, he was 6th in the race, one place ahead of Race4Change team mate Ian Duncan. Gregoire had suffered a problem with a broken wheel and spreadeagled steering, which led to getting stuck in a mud hole on the stage. Funk took a chance and drove through the bush, around Gregoire and the mud: it paid off.
In the same stage, Paolo Faldini managed to find the sweet spot and came in third: a great result after some tough days early on. It just goes to show what can be achieved by battling on, and knowing better times are ahead. Not many people can say they finished third on Safari, behind Blomqvist and Waldegård!
Further down the field, we had some other solid performances. Here’s some team quotes via the East African Safari Rally press office.
4 Bjorn Waldegård / Mathias Waldegård (Porsche 911)
“Today was very good. I went to fast in the first section – I know the section and I like it and I also like a small attack in the morning but I went too fast. We hit a drift hard at one point. In the second section we got a front puncture. I had hoped to do the whole rally without a puncture but that’s not possible on the Safari. In the last section we drove through the mudhole – it was about 50 m long and I thought this would be a close one. Tomorrow is another Safari day and I’ll drive it like one.”
14 Steven Funk / Andrew Doig (Porsche 911)
“We had a wonderful run and the car held together all day. It was even nice to me when I started to beat her up a bit. On the last section we gambled and went through the bush to avoid the mud hole.”
17 Steve Troman / Michael Nutt (Porsche 911)
“Not a very good day. We broke a steering arm, got stuck in the mud and then diverted round the mud and got lost for ten minutes. The last section was very nice, though. We are looking forward to the finish.”
18 Aslam Khan / Arshad Khan (Porsche 911)
“We had a very clean and very nice day. Now we only want a day like this tomorrow. We thought we would get stuck in the mud hole on the last section but we did not. We did not get stuck at all today.”
22 Richard Jackson / Preston Ayres (Porsche 911) (Pictured)
“Section three was very rough. Sometimes we were not quite sure if we were ionn the right road. We got stuck in that hole in the last one. Today was still better than the last days. But we are here and still running.”
45 Franz Wunderlich / Klaus-Peter Kristek (Porsche 911 )
“In the last section we must have been stuck for 50 minutes behind the Porsche 911 of de Mévius. I think the first and second sections were okay but it was so long ago it’s difficult to remember. I think tomorrow will be a good day.”
