E. African Classic Rally heads to Arusha after days of gruelling competition
By Christopher Owuor, November 29, 2019The third day of the Safaricom East African Safari Classic Rally revvs off this morning at 7am from the Wild Life Lode in the Taita Hills.
Stages to be visited today will include Ndi/Shelembwa (37.34kms), Santa Juku/Ol Donyo Longido (72.41kms) and Longido/Monduli (116,93kms). The drivers will spend the night at Mount Meru Hotel in Arusha.
Baldev Chager maintains his good form by winning all the three stages of Day One to take a narrow lead of the Safaricom East African Safari Classic Rally driving a Porsche 911 with Ravi Soni as his navigator.
The rally started with 20 crews though a good number faced problems when they got to stage two of the day. A total of six cars had failed to clear the section. Ian Duncan was among the major casualties. The crew is allowed to rejoin the event later on with a certain penalty to be applied once they restart the competition.
Onkar Rai, winner of the Nakuru and Meru Rallies this season, was placed second overall in another Porsche 911. Sweden’s Stiq Blomqvist was the best placed foreign driver in the third place giving Porsche another major score. The Swede is a former winner of the World’s best known rally.
Good memories
Raju Chaggar, who is leading a large group of officials to manage the daily affairs of the 10-day competition, is happy so far with how the preparations have gone.
“I have an incredible team consisting of 100 officials, and I have absolutely all the confidence in the officials. Classic rally is all about creating good memories and we will persevere. This is the hardest thing I’ve done in motor sports but I’m enjoying every minute of it I am making every attempt to make sure no stage is cancelled,’’ said Chaggar.
Though the latest event is mostly male dominated, there are four female navigators who are showing off their muscles in one of the toughest Marathon Raid Rallies in the World.
The four are Fabrizia Pons, Kate Hates, Julia Svensson and Juliette Brinkerhoff respectively. Hayes, who is navigating her dad in one of the 15 Porsche’s in the event, has been involved in motorsports events as a father/daughter team for overall decade. Based in Chicago, their shared passion for racing and rallying has taken the duo all over Europe and to events on Mexico’s famous Baja Peninsula.
“I read about the East Africa Classic Safari Rally and we were intrigued by the setting and the adventure,” said Joe.
“Tuthills have built us a terrific car and we can’t wait to experience the full excitement of East African rallying.”
The entry list includes interesting crew who has previously take part in rallying in Kenya. One of the crews is Kris Rosenberger/Nicola Bleicher.
Kris is no stranger to Kenya. Crowned Austrian Rally Champion in 1997, the following year he entered the Safari Rally in a Volkswagen Golf GTI, Kris finished eighth overall and third in the 2wd Class cars.
This was in a year when the podium consisted of Richard Burns, Juha Kankkunen and Ari Vatanen, eighth was a special result.
Kris went on to win three Austrian historic rally championships in a Porsche 911 SC. His co-driver Bleicher is an equally capable co-driver. The duo scored eighth overall on last year’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Second:
We are so humbled and grateful to be part of this special event. We wish all the 20 participating drivers and all the organizers, a safe and exciting event.
To the spectators, please come out in large numbers to experience this special rally; kindly do it in safe and designated spectator areas.