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Latest news from the EASR Press Office. As we enter the penultimate day’s rallying the tension is almost unbearable: what an incredible event. Waiting for Stage 18 times and the day’s final positions: will update ASAP.
Having lost their lead yesterday, Bjorn and Mathias Waldegård were hoping to close the six and half minute gap between their Porsche 911 and the Datsun 260Z of new leaders Geoff Bell and Tim Challen. On the first section, the Waldegårds narrowed the gap to 4 minutes 47 seconds but, with the second section cancelled, this left only the last section to gain more time. And time they did gain, closing the gap to just seven seconds.
Last night, as the crews of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Rally slept soundly in their beds, the rain continued to fall, causing more wet and slippery conditions on the seventh day. The first section of the day proved relatively undramatic compared to the flash floods of yesterday’s first section. Nearly 70 km long, the section was a mix of flowing road and twisty rocky sections, which seemed to suit the overall third placed Porsche 911 of Gérard Marcy and Stéphane Prévot who set fastest time by nearly 50 seconds. Another Belgian driver set second fastest time in the form of previous rally leader Grégoire de Mévius alongside Alain Guehennec in their Porsche 911.
Third fastest was Waldegård, whilst Kenyan rally champion Ian Duncan got stuck in a ditch and was nearly eleven minutes slower than the fastest time set on this section. Meanwhile former Kenyan rally champion Patrick Njiru (above) had a problem with the rear suspension near the end of the first section and returned to parc fermé to get it fixed, not starting any more sections for the day. “We are not lucky,” he said. “Yesterday we had one good section and we thought that was the beginning of our rally but we only managed one section today.”
Due to wet and muddy conditions the second section of the day that goes around Lake Baringo was cancelled and the cars were held at Lake Bogoria Hotel before heading off to the third section. This was news that was probably not welcomed by Waldegård who would want as many competitive kilometres to make up the 41 minutes he lost yesterday when fixing his roll cage on a road section after a collision. “When you are fighting you want all the sections you can get,” he said.
Undoubtedly Waldegård hoped to gain time on the third section, which was a classic Safari stage that passed over God’s Bridge – a narrow man-made passage with thousand metre drops either side. With the rain still coming down the section was again very wet and slippery and it was de Mévius who set fastest time by over two minutes from Waldegård with Marcy (below with a bit of mud on the car) setting third fastest.
“That was the hardest section I have driven so far,” said de Mévius . “But we tried to strike a balance of safety and speed.” Waldegård broke the top mount of a rear shock half way through the section and also had problems with the electrics on the last section. “I think we must have lost about one and half to two minutes,” he said.
Rally leader Bell was 6 minutes 43 seconds slower than de Mévius’ fastest time, which meant his lead had now diminished to only 7 seconds from Waldegård. Bell, who yesterday took 25 copies of the results to frame, had been certain that Waldegård would snatch the lead back today but it seems he will need to make more copies of the results this evening as he is still leading. “I’m not even trying to catch the “god” (Waldegård) or keep him behind me,” said Bell. “But it didn’t help that I had a major spin on that last section.”
Marcy who has been setting good times today is still in third place overall but over an hour behind Waldegård. Stig Blomqvist and Ana Goni are in fourth place, only seven minutes behind Marcy. Race4Change supremo Steve Funk (below) was right behind them at the end of stage 16: just waiting for times from Stage 18 to come through now.
Tomorrow is the penultimate day of the rally. Heading south-east to Voi there are four sections, including a short two and a half kilometre spectator section near Nairobi. If the popularity of the website and Rally Management Systems tracking are anything to go by, then the section should be packed with rally fans.
Only two days left in our epic adventure with Africa and the world’s toughest car rally. We never thought this was going to be easy, but none of us imagined that, on the toughest running of the toughest rally in the world, our cars would be vying for a pair of top five positions: a credit to our team and to Tuthill Porsche.
Whoever takes the winner’s champagne on Monday will have earned it. Let’s hope it’s our man Waldegård!
