Z-point

Less drama today in terms of major reversals of fortune among the leading drivers on the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 but plenty of action, both in and out of the cars. The marathon 154km competitive section proved every bit as hard a test as had been predicted. Even the leader, Bjorn Waldegård, found that his Ford Escort was capable of giving troubles when he had to drive practically the whole section with no operative clutch and then had a steering problem caused by a loose steering rack. Behind him, Gerard Marcy took fastest time on the section with his Porsche 911 and not only overtook Frederic Dor's Porsche 911 on the section but also passed him for second place in the overall rally. But even he was not destined to finish the day without problems as a puncture on the second section saw him record a time three minutes slower than Waldegård. Thus the gap between first and second place remains at just over quarter of an hour. Dor admitted that he was taking things a bit easily now to ensure finishing as he leads Geoff Fielding in yet another Porsche 911 in fourth place by fifty-three minutes with Paul-Eric Jarry fifth in a Porsche 911 a further twenty-five minutes in arrears. Sixth is Stig Blomqvist in the second Historic Motorsport Escort but he had a difficult time through the long section losing fifteen minutes after getting stuck once and sustaining a puncture. Now in seventh place is Roddy Sachs with the first of the three South African entered, Australian prepared Datsun 180Bs. His team mate, Wayne Kieswetter, in another 180B lies eighth with local driver, John Rose ninth in a Datsun 240Z. Tenth is Australian, Graham Alexander in a Datsun 260Z but other big Datsuns have not fared as well. In the first section, John Lloyd rolled his 240Z out of the rally but without any injury to the crew. Not quite so fortunate was Steve Perez in his 260Z as he hit a very bad drift and the kick-back from the steering coupled with the shock of impact appears to have damaged his vertebrae. Amazingly, Perez was able to drive some 90km out of the section before he was taken to hospital for examination and treatment. The car has been retired. Tomorrow is the last day of the nine-day Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007. The rally cars will leave Arusha at dawn for a long drive down through Tanzania with two competitive sections and then cross into Kenya for one last fling before the finish in Mombasa at the Whitesands Hotel. Provisional top ten results Pos. Driver/Co-driver Vehicle Total Penalty 1 Bjorn Waldegard/Mathias Waldegard Ford Escort Mk1 13h43m33s 2 Gerard Marcy/Alain Lopes Porsche 911 14h00m30s 3 Frederic Dor/Didier Breton Porsche 911 14h11m07s 4 Geoff Fielding/Preston Ayres Porsche 911 15h04m15s 5 Paul-Eric Jarry/Craig Redelinghuys Porsche 911 15h30m26s 6 Stig Blomqvist/Ana Goni Ford Escort Mk1 15h43m47s 7 Roddy Sachs/Peter Young Datsun 180B 16h12m01s 8 Wayne Kieswetter/Rob Hellier Datsun 180B 16h35m32s 9 John Rose/Michael Borrisow Datsun 240Z 17h01m29s 10 Graham Alexander/Ross Runnalls Datsun 260Z 17h03m46s Notes on the cars Car No. 1 Bjorn Waldegard "When I drove the Escort out of the parc ferme the clutch disengagement was not working. We bled the system and it came back for a while but then we had to drive the first competitive section with no clutch - it wasn't too much of a problem if I kept the revs up but then after about another 50 km the steering rack came loose and the front wheels opened slightly. It was going everywhere except where I wanted. This time on this long (154 km) section Mathias asked me to guess how much longer. I said about 50 km and he then told me it was 90 km. We got all the problems fixed for the second section and that went well. The times don't seem so important when you hear the sad news about Tony (Fall) but, knowing him, I'm sure he would still have found the times were important." Car No. 2 Gerard Marcy "We lost about a minute in the fesh-fesh but it was fantastic. Fantastic. We also got trapped behind a cow so we were in first gear for about 300m - I couldn't believe it - and then we were trapped behind a bus. Then on the second section we had a puncture about 50 km into the stage when we hit a stone. But it was a good day." As the Porsche 911 pulled up into the holding area at Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge it was a little low on the front left which it later transpired was a broken torsion bar. Car No. 3 Stig Blomqvist "Today wasn't too bad. In the first section when we crossed the river the engine didn't like the water. We had two front punctures - one on each section. The first was about 10 km into the first section so that was not so funny, the second was about 10 km from the end of the second section. Other than that no problems with the car." Car No. 4 Frederic Dor "Today was OK. In the middle of the second section we went into a small drift and the steering was knocked askew. You have to remember that the design of the steering on this car is about 40 years old and then we go and put big wheels and tyres on it. After that I just took it easy so as not to cause any more damage and to get out of the section. I think the dampers might be a little too soft which might have made the problem worse." Car No. 6 John Lloyd Lloyd rolled the Datsun 240Z on the first section. The crew are fine but unfortunately they will not be continuing as the car is too badly damaged. "I was slowing down from about 120kph for a drift and the back end of the car stepped out. This has happened a few times before and the worst thing that has happened so far is that we have spun and then carried on. This time the rear end caught a bank and threw the car into a series of rolls." Car No. 7 Keith and Mary Anne Callinan "That was an interesting day. We must have dropped about fifty minutes in the first section. We got through the river crossing OK but about 25 km in we went too far left and went about 2km before we bellied out. The local guys appeared from nowhere and dug us out. Then after about another 50 km we stopped dead and we discovered the alternator wire had come out - the vibration must have caused the clip to come away. The battery went and we had to get Mark (Solloway) to contact Wales to find out how to re-wire it. The last section was heaven-on-a-stick." Car No. 8 Steve Perez It was earlier reported that the 260Z rolled on the first section. In fact the car went into a large dip and hit a rock hard but did not actually roll. All the impact was taken on the cross member. Perez drove the car out of the section but on arriving at the end of the section it was decided to take him to Arusha hospital to give him a full medical check. The X-rays revealed that he had possible crushed vertebrae so the Flying Doctor has taken him on to Nairobi for further examination and treatment. Car No. 10 Geoff Fielding "That first long section was fantastic and the navigation was spot on. In the second section we had a front puncture 11 km from the end. But the car went well and we went well - were just keeping our heads down until the finish. The car is as right as nine pence and the only problem I have is that my driving gloves are worn out. Anyone got a spare pair?" Car No. 11 Graham Alexander "No problems with the head gasket after the work we did last night but I'm getting a real sore back from carrying this car around Africa. We got bogged in that sand 15 km from the start of the first section and once we got out the clutch slipped for another 30 km after that. On the second section we bent two wheel rims, one of which was rubbing on the brake calliper so we had to stop and change it. I was really annoyed when we went to use the jack because the electric gun that we use to wind the jack up and down and take the wheel nuts off had got a flat battery. If anyone wants one they've got to go and look for it in the sand. We wound the jack up with just a hand wrench which is not very quick. And finally when we came out of the last section into service we discovered we had a fractured oil pipe and there was oil all over the place. But the Datsun is probably good for another day at least." Car No. 15 Richard Martin-Hurst "I think I'm losing my enthusiasm for the Safari. I'm beginning to look on it as a destruction derby for 4x4s. Like so many others we got stuck in all that soft sand but somehow we didn't have any punctures probably because we're now driving very carefully to try to see the finish." Car No. 16 Stephen Troman "We had two puncture s the first section. The first one was very early on when we hit a rock with the front. The second was at about 90 km so we went quite carefully as we no longer had any spares. But we didn't get stuck and we didn't get lost - Martin (Rowe) was spot-on. The second section was good. We had no problems and the car's perfect. Just one more day to go." From co-driver Martin Rowe: "No punctures all rally and now we get two on the first section. We didn't get stuck, did all the hard bits and then two punctures." Car No. 18 Jayant Shah "Quite a busy day. The engine flooded out in the first river and we then practically burnt out the clutch getting up the hill beyond it. Then we had a puncture and when we went to restart the engine wouldn't go so we had to be pushed to get it going. Then we were stuck in the fesh-fesh and once again when the engine stopped it was hard to start. Then the clutch slipped all the way out of the first section. We changed the gearbox and clutch in Arusha between the sections but we thought it was raining on the second section and put on mud tyres which turned out to be a bit of a waste." Car No. 20 Paul-Eric Jarry "We had a couple of punctures. In the first stage it wasn't so bad because twenty locals lifted the car - they nearly put it on its roof - and we were able to change the wheel without using the jack. But when we had the second puncture in the second stage our hydraulic jack wasn't working and we had to use a great deal of ingenuity to get the car up using one of the spare wheels so we could change the wheel." Car No. 22 Albert Michiels "During the first section the right rear upper-engine mount started to break away from the body and we had to use two straps to winch the engine back into place and keep it held up. We didn't get stuck anywhere but we did lose some time on the second section when we got lost coming out of the dry river bed and had to come back almost 7km." Car No. 25 Michael Rose "We had a good day. In that sand it was like the Dakar. At one point we thought we had a problem because there was a lot of vibration - we thought maybe a drive shaft or a propshaft had gone - but I think it must have been the sand inside the wheels. At a couple of places we had to crawl because the sand was so deep. Our service crew (led by Michael's son and former Kenyan rally champion Lee Rose) got lost and were directed by locals into the stage where they pulled out about 12 other competitors. If they hadn't have been there we might have pulled up a couple more places." Car No. 26 Josef Pointinger "Surprisingly the car has run ok after its accident repairs yesterday but we did get stuck going away from that river 3km after the start of the first section. And then got stuck again right next to Larry Horn in all that soft sand and had to be pushed by the Masai." Car No. 29 Aslam Khan "We got stuck on that hill out of the river just into the first section but that wasn't too bad and we weren't there too long. But further on I went to climb out of a drift a bit too slowly and we got stuck so that we had to use the jack to get the car onto the hard track and away again. We didn't have any punctures but the sump guard came loose and for a moment we thought the whole car was falling apart. And we do have a rear leaf spring shackle broken. Very nice sections all day." Car No. 30 Hardev Singh Sira "We had no operation for the clutch for the last 30 km for the second stage so we had to drive all the way in second gear." Car No. 31 Imi Dewji "A pretty good day on the whole. We had no punctures and only got stuck where other people got stuck. Everyone says that the front end of my Datsun 240Z is too high and I probably agree with them but I think I'll leave it that way now until the end of the rally." Car No 32 Larry Horn "We got stuck like so many others coming out of that river at the beginning of the first section and then on the fesh-fesh 30 km further on. We were there some time and I think we've almost run out of push money but despite that all in all it was a good day and we're just happy to be through." Car No. 33 Roddy Sachs "We got stuck twice in the first section - I think we were the first to be pulled out by Lee Rose. The second section was the best in the event so far. My hand's strapped up because I broken a small bone yesterday but I don't feel any pain until I see the finish board of the stages." Car No. 36 Shaheed Wissanji "We were stuck in all that soft sand on the first stage which mad the car and us very dirty and then on the second stage we got lost coming away from the river." Car No. 37 David Rayner "The steering broke again in the first section. It always brakes the steering arm that's bolted to the bottom of the strut. I'm beginning to think that with the horizontal compression strut in the front suspension it's all too rigid and something has to give and that's the arm. It took a long time to replace because the calliper and everything has to come off. We didn't do the second section but came straight here." Car No. 39 Rommy Bamrah "In the first section we came up in the dust behind Jayant Shah and couldn't get past him and with the speed falling off we got stuck in the sand and must have lost almost half an hour before we got going again. To cap everything we had a puncture in the second stage. The car is beginning to look and feel a bit tired but at least we're still running and hope to see the finish." Car No. 42 Bert Dolk "Two major problems today. The first was we had a bolt come out of the centre prop-shaft mounting but it only came out after we had left service so we had to stop and fix that ourselves. Then going between the first and second stages the engine suddenly refused to deliver anything like the amount of power that it should and by the time we found the problem which was the float levels in the carburettors it was time to come back to Arusha. In that first stage we got stuck at one point and amazingly ten guys practically lifted the car out." Car No. 43 Tim Mammen "On the whole a good day, if a very dirty one. We got stuck in that powder towards the beginning of the first section and after you've been messing around in that stuff for a while even driving rallies loses a bit of its appeal. Otherwise no problems." Car No. 44 Neil McGrigor "Our car just doesn't like the water. We had a very long stop to dry out electrics on the first section and then we encountered four cars stuck in the soft sand. We could not find a way round it so we went all the way round on our route during which we span all on our own. We did both sections and didn't have any punctures." Car No. 45 Geoff Bell "We got stuck coming away from that first river crossing but fortunately there were lots of helping hands including Jim Heather-Hayes to get us on our way. On the second section we came up in the dust of Alexander and promptly had a puncture which split the rim and made changing it very difficult." Car No. 47 Peter Harland "That first section was the worst of the whole rally for us. We got stuck in the sand and we had two punctures. We got the second with 60 km still to go so we had to back off but when we got to the last 20 km I went for it. The 260Z's not the same car she used to be. We've gone through four rims just today." Car No. 48 Ekya Shah "We're so pleased to be here. All that's necessary now is to get the car back to Mombasa. We had a smaller leak on the differential today but the guys can fix that and it didn't give us any problem." Car No. 49 Jeremy Bennett "We got stuck in the river, stuck in the sand and then we had punctures on the rocks. We got pulled out the sand twice by Lee Rose. On the way to the second section we bought some wooden planks from a local bedmaker just in case we got stuck again. On the second section we had another puncture and then just to add to it all we ran out of petrols coming up the driveway to the hotel." Car No. 52 Iqbal Sagoo "A pretty good day. I really enjoyed that first difficult section despite all the powder. We passed about five cars. However on the transport to the second section the car almost came to a halt and would barely move. Of course we checked all the normal things and it took time before we discovered that the fault lay with the ignition coil. We quickly changed that but we were four minutes late into the start of the next section." Car No. 53 Wayne Kieswetter & Rob Hellier "In the first section we got horribly stuck twice. The first time we were pulled out by Lee Rose - I think he's going to be very drunk tonight from all the beers that people will buy him. The second time we got stuck trying to get out of the ruts and go past Roddy (Sachs) then we had a puncture and there was a terrible smell of fuel when we re-started and we stopped again but couldn't find anything. The second stage was ok but we couldn't get out of the ruts." Car No. 58 Michel Puchercos "Just one kilometre before the start of the first section, going down the 27 km from the tarmac road, the shock absorber mount on one of the rear trailing arms broke. Then our service crew got lost for a while so by the time we met up with them and got it fixed it was a better strategy to go straight to the second section and miss the first. Happily, we didn't get lost and I think we did a good time and enjoyed it." A sad note was struck when the competitors and officials on the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 learnt this morning that Tony Fall, one of the great competitors and supporters of the Safari Rally who was here working on the event, had died in his sleep during the night. All of those here on the Safari Classic send their condolences and best wishes to his family and all his friends throughout the world. Tony will be sadly missed by all those who love rallying and for whom he was a icon.

Problems for ex-World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist caused a bit of a shake-up on the seventh day of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007. His Ford Escort broke a half-shaft in the first competitive section today and he took a maximum penalty. Once the car was fixed, he soon bounced back to set third fastest time on the long second section and has managed to hold onto eighth place overall. The rally leader is still his team mate, Bjorn Waldegård, whose Escort now has a lead of some sixteen minutes over new second place man, Frederic Dor, driving a Porsche 911. But the rally has been set alight by the driving of Gerard Marcy, now third in a Porsche 911 who set fastest time on both sections today, outpacing his nearest rivals by two and a half minutes on the first 75km section and a minute and twenty seconds on the second 116km section. The gap between these two Porsches is now one minute and ten seconds which, on a Safari Rally, is a mere blink of the eye. Still slightly amazed by his good position on a rally that he has never driven before is Geoff Fielding whose Porsche 911 now lies fourth overall, some way behind Marcy but twelve minutes ahead of Frenchman, Paul-Eric Jarry, in yet another Porsche 911. Jarry has been driving steadily all week, starting just outside the top ten and improving by about one place a day until now he lies fifth, a minute ahead of Steve Perez in a Datsun 260Z. John Lloyd has fallen back again with his Datsun 240Z after having the misfortune to discover that he had a puncture right on the start line of the first section. He had to change it in the section and then later had an off road excursion that resulted in a broken fan belt. Blomqvist lies eighth behind Lloyd and is doubtless looking to erode the eight minutes between them in the next two days of rallying. Roddy Sachs from South Africa is ninth in a Datsun 180B despite suspension trouble at the end of the day and his team mate, Wayne Kiewetter is tenth in another Datsun 180B. There are no local drivers left in the top ten since Jonathan Savage had the misfortune to roll is Datsun 260Z just four kilometres from the end of the second section. The crew are unhurt but the car is unlikely to continue according to eye-witnesses at the scene. Thus the top local crew are John Rose and Michael Borrisow in their Datsun 240Z in fifteenth place. The best local individual is of course, Peter Young, who is co-driving for Sachs. Tomorrow, the rally comprises a loop circumnavigating Mount Meru from the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge outside Arusha that again provides just two competitive sections. However, the first is 154km and the second is 62km so no one is expecting an easy day's drive. After that, there is just one long day on Monday back to the finish in Mombasa with three competitive sections one of which is in the infamous Usambara Mountains. Provisional top ten results Pos. Driver/Co-driver Vehicle Total Penalty 1 Bjorn Waldegard/Mathias Waldegard Ford Escort Mk1 11h30m19s 2 Frederic Dor/Didier Breton Porsche 911 11h46m24s 3 Gerard Marcy/Alain Lopes Porsche 911 11h47m34s 4 Geoff Fielding/Preston Ayres Porsche 911 12h31m45s 5 Paul-Eric Jarry/Craig Redelinghuys Porsche 911 12h44m19s 6 Steven Perez/Michael Stuart Datsun 260Z 12h45m20s 7 John Lloyd/Adrian Cavenagh Datsun 240Z 13h00m46s 8 Stig Blomqvist/Ana Goni Ford Escort Mk1 13h08m57s 9 Roddy Sachs/Peter Young Datsun 180B 13h17m14s 10 Wayne Kieswetter/Rob Hellier Datsun 180B 13h42m39s Car No. 1 Bjorn Waldegard "On the second section it was very twisty. I thought we were near the end and I asked Mathias how much longer to go. When he told me there was still 70 km I was quite surprised. It felt as we'd already done 100km of the 115 km section. With the misfire completely gone after the lads fixed the distributor yesterday the car is going really well. The only problem we have is a hole in the exhaust but that's quite straightforward to fix." Car No. 2 Gerard Marcy Marcy set fastest time on both sections despite breaking a front right damper 20 km into the first section. "Other than that the car is good," he said. "Perhaps if it hadn't broken I would have gone even faster on that section. On the last section I caught Waldegard and had to drive 50 km in his dust. Just no way to get past." Car No. 3 Stig Blomqvist The Escort broke a half-shaft 9 km into the first section. "I jacked the car up and started to take the broken shaft out," said Blomqvist. "But the broken bit inside the diff was twisted so when the service car came eventually we had to take the whole differential out in order to remove the broken part. That all took a very long time so we turned round and went back to the main road and down to the second competitive section." From co-driver Ana Goni: "We passed eight cars in the second section though I have to admit that two of them were actually in ditches." Car No. 4 Frederic Dor The Porsche 911 broke a rear damper in the first section. "I saw Stig stopped and then my damper went so I decided to drive slowly and carefully," said Dor. "I knew the service after that section was short so I wanted to cause as little damage as possible. The last section was very twisty." Car No. 6 John Lloyd The crew of the 240Z realised the car had a puncture just as they pulled up to the start control of the first section. "We had to change it once we started the stage," said Lloyd. "And then we came over a massive jump and went straight into the bush. Finally we had to change the fan belt probably as a result of that excursion. I reckon we must have lost about sixteen minutes in all." Car No. 7 Keith & Mary Anne Callinan "We had a good day. We got caught in someone's dust 25 km into the first stage and managed to pass them at 52 km. The second section was brilliant - awesome. There were lots of things to catch you out but it all went fine." Car No. 8 Steve Perez After a big jump at the end of the first section the 260Z broke one of its engine mounts which allowed the engine to drop onto the steering rack which then stiffened up. "The steering was quite heavy on that last section," said Perez. "On a straight you can take your hands off the wheel and it goes on its own but of course on that second section there aren't very many straights. In fact it seemed to go on forever. It was nice to have a good transport sections and time to complete them." Car No. 10 Geoff Fielding "We had a puncture 5 km into the second section and had a few problems with the jack. We were passed by Jarry and Perez while changing the tyre but we overtook them again later in the section. It was good because I was catching them so the adrenaline was going and I didn't feel tired. The stages were fantastic." Car No. 11 Graham Alexander "The head gasket started leaking on the first transport section to the border. We're not quite sure where it is leaking but I've had to take it really easy all day, especially up hills where I haven't been able to use the engine to its full capacity. Now we have to look in service and see if there is anything we can do." Car No. 15 Richard Martin-Hurst "We broke a half-shaft 59 km into the first section - that's just 15 km from the finish. Tony stripped out the shaft and diff while we were waiting for the service crew to come in. We told them what the problem was on the sat phone so when they arrived it was quite a quick job but we were still OTL at the end of the competitive section so there was no point in proceeding to the next one and we came straight to Arusha for service." Car No. 16 Stephen Troman "We lost the brakes a bit 10 km into the last section - I think we were losing brake fluid. The last section was very twisty and was more I'm used to. It was great to drive." From co-driver Martin Rowe: "After our experience yesterday Steve was a bit slow to get into it today but it wasn't long before we were going over things that were at least as bad as the one that ripped our suspension off yesterday." Car No. 18 Jayant Shah "No problem with the car, not even with the co-driver. A thoroughly enjoyable day of proper rallying." From co-driver Lofty Drews: "We just don't care anymore. We are giving it hell." Car No. 19 Paul & Mary-Ellen Kane The Mustang finished the first section but has been seen stopped not far from the end of the second section. All is fine but the car is among those who has not yet arrived in Arusha. Car No. 20 Paul-Eric Jarry "That second section was one of the best that I have ever driven. It was wonderful. It's nice to see that we are slowly coming up the results and we're trying to do it by keeping the Porsche in good condition." Car No. 21 Jonathan Savage Unfortunately the local 260Z rolled 4 km from the end of the second section. The crew are both fine - the doctor drove in from the end of the section to give them the medical all clear. Car No. 22 Albert Michiels "Today was very good and we had no problem. The second section was very beautiful and I even had a chance to look at some of the scenery." Car No. 25 John Rose "Great. Classic stages - the best in the world. You could see the people watching were entertained. They don't see rallies come through much these days. No problem with the car which seems to be as solid as a rock." Car No. 26 Josef Pointinger The Escort ran into the back of Joginder Singh's official car in the thick dust on the transport section to the border. The crew are fine but unfortunately the car caught the spare wheel hung over the back of the Toyota Prado and did a lot of damage to the left front of the Escort including wrecking the radiator. It arrived in Arusha on a tow rope, having missed both of today's sections. Pointinger said: "We're fitting a new radiator and hammering out the car but at the moment the left hand side is 4cm shorter than the right hand side." The Escort is now in parc ferme and will therefore doubtless restart in the morning. Car No. 29 Aslam Khan "A nice day with just a few rough places. No trouble with the car so better than yesterday and even better than earlier in the week. We've got a slight oil leak from the rear but we believe it's only from the engine breather." Car No. 31 Imi Dewji From co-driver Gabriele Mahler: "We had a good day. There were a few small problems with the car but nothing major. In the last section we pulled Hardev (Singh Sira) 13 km to the end. They were stopped on the road with battery problems." Car No. 32 Larry Horn "I liked the first section but I wasn't so keen on the second. I'm not really interested in all that first and second gear stuff. We have tractors for that. It was also a problem for me to see over the 260Z's long bonnet and on the muddy bit in the middle of the second section we looked to be headed for an accident where the choice was between a big drop on the left and a ditch on the right. You can guess which option I chose but the car came up out of the ditch OK and doesn't appear to have a scratch." Car No. 33 Roddy Sachs "We burst a shock and broke a right rear wishbone about 25 km from the end of the last section. We hit a hole and I think Geoff (Bell) in one of the other 180Bs hit the same one. The sections were great, fantastic. In that last one I think I must have lost about 3 kilos in body weight from all the work I did." Car No. 34 Ian & Val Swan The Volvo broke a differential in the first section and they have come straight to Arusha. Car No. 36 Shaheed Wissanji "The car is much better today. We fixed the master cylinder for the brakes. We had some spares flown in from Mombasa late last night and then changed it before the first section. Now we've got brakes, we had a great day." Car No. 37 David & Sarah Rayner "OK and nothing with the car. We enjoyed that today even it was a bit slippery up on the top of that second section. When Stig came past us I wondered what motorway he was driving on." Car No. 39 Rommy Bamrah "Today was alright. The last section was quite muddy and we got stuck in the mud on a corner. Luckily Peter Harland pulled us out but we still lost about five minutes." Car No. 41 Kurt Vanderspinnen "That was a nice day in the office. No problems and I loved that second section - a real test of a rally driver." Car No. 42 Bert Dolk "About half way through the second section the Volvo broke one of its rear suspension mountings on the rear axle. There was nothing we could do to fix it so we just had to drive very slowly through the stage and get it to service. We lost maybe twenty minutes in the stage and by the time we got it fixed we were almost out of time on the transport section into Arusha." Car No. 43 Tim Mammen "We lost a rear damper on that second stage and thus drove most of it being a bit too careful. I think that was a mistake as in fact the car was pretty good even with the broken damper." Car No. 44 Neil McGrigor The Ford Mexico arrived in Arusha, having completed both of the competitive sections. There were no problems with the car. "And I haven't run out of 'Alive and Kicking' footballs yet," he said. Car No. 45 Geoff Bell "We hit a hole in the second section but there's been no other problems. There was mud on that section and it was in a real tricky place but we managed to keep the 180B out of the ditch." Car No. 46 Minesh Rathod "We lost an alternator today and also an oil seal from the diff leaked oil out into the axle tube but it was a nice day and we had no other problems. We found it a bit rough in the second section but no complaints." Car No. 47 Peter Harland "We had a puncture on the first section. On the second section we pulled out the 240Z of Rommy Bamrah who to add insult to injury then overtook us. There was a good tussle between Escorts and the 260Zs." Car No. 49 Jeremy Bennett "I am absolutely shattered. That last section was so long. We had a slight altercation with a bush. We cut a corner and went straight through it and out the other side. I don't think the co-driver noticed he was concentrating so hard on the roadbook. The Escort Mexico has been amazing - it's taken an absolute pounding and it just keeps going." Car No. 52 Iqbal Sagoo "That second section was the most physically and mentally demanding section I've ever done. I thought it would never end. Hard but enjoyable. No problems with the car but we did modify the rear bumper a bit." Car No. 53 Wayne Kieswetter "We took it easy on the long stage, the second one, mainly to make sure we had the navigation right. We went for it when we could but we're probably a bit slower than we ought to have been. It's fair to say they were good sections." Car No. 58 Michel Puchercos "That last section was very very long and it was twisty just like the Swiss Alps. We had a rear puncture 100 km into it and it must have taken about five minutes to change. I'll have a massage tonight and I'll be ready for tomorrow.

Another Datsun works driver hero passed away last week. Last year it was Shekhar Mehta, now it is Tony Fall. http://www.walesrallygb.com/52_549.php?PHPSESSID=c807895c3163374753a6405e73bb028f

Since the site was out of order for a few days, you missed a lot :disappoin Well, we go on with day 6. The rain in the night certainly enlivened the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 and gave the surviving crews a new challenge in their first two sections on Friday. On the first, Bjorn Waldegård, as the overnight leader opening the road for the other cars, suffered most from the soft, slippery conditions and was caught and passed by his team mate, Stig Blomqvist, towards the end of the section. This reduced Waldegård's lead by two minutes but he promptly answered back with fastest time on the second section. The two Escorts finished the day in the same positions, first and second overall, now seven minutes apart. Behind them, the true pace setter was Porsche driver, Gerard Marcy who took fastest time on the first and third sections and has consequently closed the gap slightly to third placed man, Frederic Dor, in another Porsche 911. Fifth is Geoff Fielding in yet another Porsche who now has a comfortable gap between him and John Lloyd's Datsun 240Z after the latter's encounter with a river crossing. Steve Perez is seventh in a Datsun 20Z with a hard-charging Paul-Eric Jarry just a minute and half behind him in a Porsche 911. The best local driver is Jonathan Savage in ninth place with his Datsun 260Z. This is despite a near miss with a bridge after a management decision to land the right way up in the river rather than roll over the parapet and land upside down in the river. In tenth is the ever-popular Roddy Sachs from South Africa in the first of the three Datsun 180Bs. The main excitement of the day was provided by some of the later runners who, faced with the first big river crossing of the rally in the middle of the second section, tried to turn the rally into a regatta. Among those requiring help from the willing local inhabitants to reach the far shore were John Lloyd (Datsun 240Z) and Joseph Pointinger (Ford Escort). The general feeling from the crews was that the muddy sections had been great fun, not too rough and not much chance of getting stuck, while all the sections had been much smoother than even the previous day. Tomorrow, Saturday, the Safari Classic goes into Tanzania with two classic sections just across the border before the night halt in the shadow of Kilimanjaro at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge. Provisional top ten results Pos. Driver/Co-driver Car Total penalty 1 Bjorn Waldegard/Mathias Waldegard Ford Escort Mk1 09h14m03s 2 Stig Blomqvist/Ana Goni Ford Escort Mk1 09h21m08s 3 Frederic Dor/Didier Breton Porsche 911 09h26m53s 4 Gerard Marcy/Alain Lopes Porsche 911 09h36m48s 5 Geoff Fielding/Preston Ayres Porsche 911 10h05m21s 6 John Lloyd/Adrian Cavenagh Datsun 240Z 10h16m26s 7 Steven Perez/Michael Stuart Datsun 260Z 10h21m03s 8 Paul-Eric Jarry/Craig Redelinghuys Porsche 911 10h22m39s 9 Jonathan Savage/Quentin Savage Datsun 260Z 10h34m40s 10 Roddy Sachs/ Peter Young Datsun 180B 10h48m48s Almost before the rally cars got into the first competitive section away from Amboseli, the dramas were starting - amongst the service crews. The overnight rain had turned the old pipeline road from Loitokitok to Emali into a mud slide and first Tuthill Porsche had their big truck slide into a ditch and get firmly stuck, and then forty kilometres on, the Historic Motorsport truck did the same. The latter was worst off since the front tyre punctured in the incident and then the man with the ignition keys was spirited off which made later retrieval a bit tricky. It even had the misfortune to rip out a brake pipe while being retrieved. Tuthill's truck made it to Taita in time for service but the Ford truck was itself in need of service and will turn up later. Notes on the cars and crews. Car No 1 Bjorn Waldegard "We had a medium day. On the first section there was a lot of black cotton and it was very sticky. We were first on the road that meant the others could see the right line to take. At one point we hit a sticky patch and Stig took a cleaner line and passed us. We also have a slight misfire. We thought we fixed it yesterday but it's still there and on that last fast section the engine was not pulling properly and we lost some time." On arrival at Taita, the mechanics discovered that the pinch bolt for the distributor was completely loose - and had been slightly so for days. This is now being replaced and the Waldegaards should not have to worry about misfires in future. Car No. 2 Gerard Marcy "The first section was very muddy and the second section was OK. The third was very fast - I think we got to a top speed of 206kph." Alain Lopes : "Normal day for the co-driver, we followed the route !" Car No. 3 Stig Blomqvist "There was no problem today. We try to go not too fast for the conditions but the driving is very nice." Ana Goni : "For Bjorn it was really bad luck to be first car through that first section". Car No. 4 Frederic Dor "Marcy passed us in the first section - perhaps we were being a little too careful. When it is twisty I can get nearer to Stig and Bjorn but not on the fast stuff. And I didn't want to go flat out on that last part of the last section: 15 km flat out can take 1000km off the engine." Car No. 6 John Lloyd Lloyd's 240Z was the first casualty of the river crossing in the second section. He got stuck for about six minutes and had to be pushed out. "The concrete looked as if it was broken," he said. "So we took another route which didn't prove to be the best. It certainly had the deepest water and sandiest bottom." They also had problems with the brakes in the last section and in Lloyd's words "took a detour through a hedge." Car No. 7 Keith Callinan "This was the best day out. We're very happy. No problems in the mud and that last section certainly got the adrenaline going." Car No. 8 Steve Perez After the rest day the 260Z is now running at the rear on the MCA suspension from Stefano Roccas 260Z which rolled out of the rally on the third day. "The suspension is much better," said Perez. "But we could still do with a little more power, especially on that last 15 kilometres on the last section." From co-driver Mike Stuart: "The suspension is a lot better. Steve drove a perfect pace. We got caught by Jonathan Savage in the first section but, as a local, he gave us a bit of a driving lesson in how to rally in these conditions and Steve was right on him until the end." Car No. 10 Geoff Fielding "We took it steady on the first section because it was very slippery. Africa was showing us another face but I'm still really enjoying the stages." Car No. 11 Graham Alexander "We got the valve springs fixed yesterday and we're back on six cylinders. But on the third section the radiator was leaking and we had to stop twice to re-fill it with water." Car No. 15 Richard Martin-Hurst "Unfortunately we didn't fit new front tyres in Amboseli and, with the rain last night we were a bit all over the place on the first two stages but it was enjoyable nevertheless. The car's giving non problems." Car No. 16 Stephen Troman From Richard Tuthill: "Steve has gone off 5km from the start of the third section and unfortunately he's ripped the front arm off the chassis. He can't drive the car but a service car has gone back and will collect him when the section has finished. Only the car is damaged and the crew are fine." Car No. 18 Jayant Shah "We had just a perfect day. Typical Safari: totally enjoyable." Car No. 19 Paul & Mary-Ellen Kane The Mustang developed a taste for fan belts in the second section. The Kanes changed one themselves but when the second one went they decided to get towed into service where it was changed again. They drove straight to the Taita Hills Lodge keeping the revs low. "But we still enjoyed it," said Mary-Ellen. "This way we get to see the landscape properly and meet the people and we'll be up and running again tomorrow." At the moment the Mustang's fan belt problem has been diagnosed as stemming from the alternator. Car No. 20 Paul Eric-Jarry "Today was OK. We're here on time: nothing broke and there were no accidents. The first two sections were very slippery but we took it 'easy-does-it' and we got through. We tried to drive smoothly and keep up the pace. We've been running with the windows open because we've had a smell of petrol." Car No. 21 Jonathan Savage The 260Z of the Savages had an encounter with a different river to most in the second section. They were a bit fast into a sharp left into a narrow bridge only a couple of kilometres after the start and decided rather than hit the parapet and roll into the river the best option was to steer into it. "It was about a twenty foot drop," said Savage. "And then about hundred local guys lifted the car and me up the other side. It was lucky I hadn't filled her up otherwise we might have needed 120." Car No. 22 Albert Michiels "No problems. I've really enjoyed today. A nice mixture of slippery, twisty and then fast." Car No. 25 John Rose "We have a problem that's developed with the odometer whereby when it vibrates the display disappears so Michael has to try to keep a hand on it all the time. Sadly this caused us to take a wrong turning in the third stage at a fork where the driver's instinct was to go right but, thanks to the fault, the co-driver thought it was left. When we found out we were wrong we had to turn around and go back and go right." Car No. 26 Josef Pointinger "When we came to that big river in the second section we made a bad choice and went into the deepest bit. I can't tell you quite how deep but I can tell you that now the Austrian Navy has one submarine. Wolfgang got out to organise the twenty people who were pushing us out but in his enthusiasm he fell forwards and disappeared into the water. I thought he'd gone fishing. He had to have a complete change of clothes at the next service point." Car No. 30 Hardev Singh Sira "A nice fast uneventful day. So nice to enjoy the rally after all our problems in the first few days." Car No. 32 Larry Horn "It was a good day. The first sections were slippery but entertaining. We had a few knocks here and there but everything is OK with the car." Car No. 33 Roddy Sachs The Datsun 180B arrived at Taita Hills Lodge with a smashed windscreen. "We had a great day rallying until the last transport section when we hit a water buck which was a really sad end to the day." Car No 34 Ian and Val Swan Both driver and co-driver looked immaculate as they got out of their Volvo. "We had three good stages with no problems," said Ian. "We only to put petrol in the car. We also managed to pass a couple of Porsches which always makes me feel good." Car No. 37 David and Sarah Rayner "The first day without anything dropping off so were quite pleased. Yesterday I fitted some bigger bolts - actually Alllen screws - and that seems to have done the trick." Car No. 39 Rommi Bamrah "I should've had a radio for that last stage with that long straight. But at least we had no problems or incidents today which makes a nice contrast to the first half of the rally." Car No. 41 Kurt Vanderspinnen "Everything is going well until we hit a small problem on the final section. The engine started to lose power and once we almost came to a halt but then the engine picked up again. We'll have to find out what's causing that in the service." Car No. 42 "A very nice day. Slowly but surely we are rebuilding our car and enjoying ourselves." Car No. 43 Tim Mammen "Not a bad day but for two things: in Amboseli our mud tyres weren't inflated so we had to carry on with the normal ones and then just coming into Taita lodge the fuel filter mounting broke and filled the boot with fuel." Car No. 44 Neil McGrigor "The day was uneventful from the point of the view of the car and incidents. Beautiful sections. I particularly liked the two muddy ones at the start, not much you can do on those 14 km straights with a 1600cc engine." Car No. 45 Geoff Bell "Well it looks like I'm well out of the running now. The 180B was on three cylinders all day and last night we changed everything we possibly could without success. I made a very bad decision to try to fix it during today and I've lost maybe two hours. I'm gutted." Car No. 46 Minesh Rathod "A much better day and really enjoyed it." Car No. 47 Peter Harland "Great to do a stage when you're flat out in fifth gear for so long. It was a fabulous day and I'm sure there's more to come." Car No. 48 Ekya and Prina Shah The husband-wife team unfortunately rolled in the first section. Prina has damaged a finger and is going to Voi for an X-ray but the crew are otherwise OK. They didn't start the second section but they did complete the third and are planning to continue tomorrow morning. Car No. 49 Timothy Bennett "A fantastic day. We were cautious on the first section and had one big bang at the back when we hit a culvert. The starter motor failed at the beginning of the second section so we had to have a few push starts. The last section was flat, fast and furious. Bessy (the name of their Escort Mexico) got up to 140 kph." Car No. 50 Nick Mason "To try and avoid punctures we've been running with the tyre pressure quite hard but after I'd driven the first section this morning in all the mud I had to try and let them down to get a bit more grip. Sadly we then got a puncture on the second section and on the third. This is a fantastic event and despite problems we're enjoying it immensely." Car No. 52 Iqbal Sagoo "It's been a very good day. It wasn't actually as muddy and slippery as I expected. I found the last 15 km of the last section a bit boring." From co-driver Jurgen Bertl: "When it came to choosing which way to go at that river, I knew that the water flows fastest where it is shallowest so we chose correctly and went over the concrete." Car No. 53 Wayne Keitswetter & Rob Hellier "The first sections were slippery and there were some interesting lines. We bust a rear trailing arm before the third section and the rear end kept trying to overtake us coming down the tarmac into service but we managed to fix it. The 180B's going well but we look at one another and wonder if there isn't something wrong with the weight to power ratio."

http://www.eastafricansafarirally.com/results07/reusltsday-6.htm The rain in the night certainly enlivened the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 and gave the surviving crews a new challenge in their first two sections on Friday. On the first, Bjorn Waldegård, as the overnight leader opening the road for the other cars, suffered most from the soft, slippery conditions and was caught and passed by his team mate, Stig Blomqvist, towards the end of the section. This reduced Waldegård's lead by two minutes but he promptly answered back with fastest time on the second section. The two Escorts finished the day in the same positions, first and second overall, now seven minutes apart. Behind them, the true pace setter was Porsche driver, Gerard Marcy who took fastest time on the first and third sections and has consequently closed the gap slightly to third placed man, Frederic Dor, in another Porsche 911. Fifth is Geoff Fielding in yet another Porsche who now has a comfortable gap between him and John Lloyd's Datsun 240Z after the latter's encounter with a river crossing. Steve Perez is seventh in a Datsun 20Z with a hard-charging Paul-Eric Jarry just a minute and half behind him in a Porsche 911. The best local driver is Jonathan Savage in ninth place with his Datsun 260Z. This is despite a near miss with a bridge after a management decision to land the right way up in the river rather than roll over the parapet and land upside down in the river. In tenth is the ever-popular Roddy Sachs from South Africa in the first of the three Datsun 180Bs. The main excitement of the day was provided by some of the later runners who, faced with the first big river crossing of the rally in the middle of the second section, tried to turn the rally into a regatta. Among those requiring help from the willing local inhabitants to reach the far shore were John Lloyd (Datsun 240Z) and Joseph Pointinger (Ford Escort). The general feeling from the crews was that the muddy sections had been great fun, not too rough and not much chance of getting stuck, while all the sections had been much smoother than even the previous day. Tomorrow, Saturday, the Safari Classic goes into Tanzania with two classic sections just across the border before the night halt in the shadow of Kilimanjaro at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge. Provisional top ten results Pos. Driver/Co-driver Car Total penalty 1 Bjorn Waldegard/Mathias Waldegard Ford Escort Mk1 09h14m03s 2 Stig Blomqvist/Ana Goni Ford Escort Mk1 09h21m08s 3 Frederic Dor/Didier Breton Porsche 911 09h26m53s 4 Gerard Marcy/Alain Lopes Porsche 911 09h36m48s 5 Geoff Fielding/Preston Ayres Porsche 911 10h05m21s 6 John Lloyd/Adrian Cavenagh Datsun 240Z 10h16m26s 7 Steven Perez/Michael Stuart Datsun 260Z 10h21m03s 8 Paul-Eric Jarry/Craig Redelinghuys Porsche 911 10h22m39s 9 Jonathan Savage/Quentin Savage Datsun 260Z 10h34m40s 10 Roddy Sachs/ Peter Young Datsun 180B 10h48m48s Almost before the rally cars got into the first competitive section away from Amboseli, the dramas were starting - amongst the service crews. The overnight rain had turned the old pipeline road from Loitokitok to Emali into a mud slide and first Tuthill Porsche had their big truck slide into a ditch and get firmly stuck, and then forty kilometres on, the Historic Motorsport truck did the same. The latter was worst off since the front tyre punctured in the incident and then the man with the ignition keys was spirited off which made later retrieval a bit tricky. It even had the misfortune to rip out a brake pipe while being retrieved. Tuthill's truck made it to Taita in time for service but the Ford truck was itself in need of service and will turn up later. Notes on the cars and crews. Car No 1 Bjorn Waldegard "We had a medium day. On the first section there was a lot of black cotton and it was very sticky. We were first on the road that meant the others could see the right line to take. At one point we hit a sticky patch and Stig took a cleaner line and passed us. We also have a slight misfire. We thought we fixed it yesterday but it's still there and on that last fast section the engine was not pulling properly and we lost some time." On arrival at Taita, the mechanics discovered that the pinch bolt for the distributor was completely loose - and had been slightly so for days. This is now being replaced and the Waldegaards should not have to worry about misfires in future. Car No. 2 Gerard Marcy "The first section was very muddy and the second section was OK. The third was very fast - I think we got to a top speed of 206kph." Alain Lopes : "Normal day for the co-driver, we followed the route !" Car No. 3 Stig Blomqvist "There was no problem today. We try to go not too fast for the conditions but the driving is very nice." Ana Goni : "For Bjorn it was really bad luck to be first car through that first section". Car No. 4 Frederic Dor "Marcy passed us in the first section - perhaps we were being a little too careful. When it is twisty I can get nearer to Stig and Bjorn but not on the fast stuff. And I didn't want to go flat out on that last part of the last section: 15 km flat out can take 1000km off the engine." Car No. 6 John Lloyd Lloyd's 240Z was the first casualty of the river crossing in the second section. He got stuck for about six minutes and had to be pushed out. "The concrete looked as if it was broken," he said. "So we took another route which didn't prove to be the best. It certainly had the deepest water and sandiest bottom." They also had problems with the brakes in the last section and in Lloyd's words "took a detour through a hedge." Car No. 7 Keith Callinan "This was the best day out. We're very happy. No problems in the mud and that last section certainly got the adrenaline going." Car No. 8 Steve Perez After the rest day the 260Z is now running at the rear on the MCA suspension from Stefano Roccas 260Z which rolled out of the rally on the third day. "The suspension is much better," said Perez. "But we could still do with a little more power, especially on that last 15 kilometres on the last section." From co-driver Mike Stuart: "The suspension is a lot better. Steve drove a perfect pace. We got caught by Jonathan Savage in the first section but, as a local, he gave us a bit of a driving lesson in how to rally in these conditions and Steve was right on him until the end." Car No. 10 Geoff Fielding "We took it steady on the first section because it was very slippery. Africa was showing us another face but I'm still really enjoying the stages." Car No. 11 Graham Alexander "We got the valve springs fixed yesterday and we're back on six cylinders. But on the third section the radiator was leaking and we had to stop twice to re-fill it with water." Car No. 15 Richard Martin-Hurst "Unfortunately we didn't fit new front tyres in Amboseli and, with the rain last night we were a bit all over the place on the first two stages but it was enjoyable nevertheless. The car's giving non problems." Car No. 16 Stephen Troman From Richard Tuthill: "Steve has gone off 5km from the start of the third section and unfortunately he's ripped the front arm off the chassis. He can't drive the car but a service car has gone back and will collect him when the section has finished. Only the car is damaged and the crew are fine." Car No. 18 Jayant Shah "We had just a perfect day. Typical Safari: totally enjoyable." Car No. 19 Paul & Mary-Ellen Kane The Mustang developed a taste for fan belts in the second section. The Kanes changed one themselves but when the second one went they decided to get towed into service where it was changed again. They drove straight to the Taita Hills Lodge keeping the revs low. "But we still enjoyed it," said Mary-Ellen. "This way we get to see the landscape properly and meet the people and we'll be up and running again tomorrow." At the moment the Mustang's fan belt problem has been diagnosed as stemming from the alternator. Car No. 20 Paul Eric-Jarry "Today was OK. We're here on time: nothing broke and there were no accidents. The first two sections were very slippery but we took it 'easy-does-it' and we got through. We tried to drive smoothly and keep up the pace. We've been running with the windows open because we've had a smell of petrol." Car No. 21 Jonathan Savage The 260Z of the Savages had an encounter with a different river to most in the second section. They were a bit fast into a sharp left into a narrow bridge only a couple of kilometres after the start and decided rather than hit the parapet and roll into the river the best option was to steer into it. "It was about a twenty foot drop," said Savage. "And then about hundred local guys lifted the car and me up the other side. It was lucky I hadn't filled her up otherwise we might have needed 120." Car No. 22 Albert Michiels "No problems. I've really enjoyed today. A nice mixture of slippery, twisty and then fast." Car No. 25 John Rose "We have a problem that's developed with the odometer whereby when it vibrates the display disappears so Michael has to try to keep a hand on it all the time. Sadly this caused us to take a wrong turning in the third stage at a fork where the driver's instinct was to go right but, thanks to the fault, the co-driver thought it was left. When we found out we were wrong we had to turn around and go back and go right." Car No. 26 Josef Pointinger "When we came to that big river in the second section we made a bad choice and went into the deepest bit. I can't tell you quite how deep but I can tell you that now the Austrian Navy has one submarine. Wolfgang got out to organise the twenty people who were pushing us out but in his enthusiasm he fell forwards and disappeared into the water. I thought he'd gone fishing. He had to have a complete change of clothes at the next service point." Car No. 30 Hardev Singh Sira "A nice fast uneventful day. So nice to enjoy the rally after all our problems in the first few days." Car No. 32 Larry Horn "It was a good day. The first sections were slippery but entertaining. We had a few knocks here and there but everything is OK with the car." Car No. 33 Roddy Sachs The Datsun 180B arrived at Taita Hills Lodge with a smashed windscreen. "We had a great day rallying until the last transport section when we hit a water buck which was a really sad end to the day." Car No 34 Ian and Val Swan Both driver and co-driver looked immaculate as they got out of their Volvo. "We had three good stages with no problems," said Ian. "We only to put petrol in the car. We also managed to pass a couple of Porsches which always makes me feel good." Car No. 37 David and Sarah Rayner "The first day without anything dropping off so were quite pleased. Yesterday I fitted some bigger bolts - actually Alllen screws - and that seems to have done the trick." Car No. 39 Rommi Bamrah "I should've had a radio for that last stage with that long straight. But at least we had no problems or incidents today which makes a nice contrast to the first half of the rally." Car No. 41 Kurt Vanderspinnen "Everything is going well until we hit a small problem on the final section. The engine started to lose power and once we almost came to a halt but then the engine picked up again. We'll have to find out what's causing that in the service." Car No. 42 "A very nice day. Slowly but surely we are rebuilding our car and enjoying ourselves." Car No. 43 Tim Mammen "Not a bad day but for two things: in Amboseli our mud tyres weren't inflated so we had to carry on with the normal ones and then just coming into Taita lodge the fuel filter mounting broke and filled the boot with fuel." Car No. 44 Neil McGrigor "The day was uneventful from the point of the view of the car and incidents. Beautiful sections. I particularly liked the two muddy ones at the start, not much you can do on those 14 km straights with a 1600cc engine." Car No. 45 Geoff Bell "Well it looks like I'm well out of the running now. The 180B was on three cylinders all day and last night we changed everything we possibly could without success. I made a very bad decision to try to fix it during today and I've lost maybe two hours. I'm gutted." Car No. 46 Minesh Rathod "A much better day and really enjoyed it." Car No. 47 Peter Harland "Great to do a stage when you're flat out in fifth gear for so long. It was a fabulous day and I'm sure there's more to come." Car No. 48 Ekya and Prina Shah The husband-wife team unfortunately rolled in the first section. Prina has damaged a finger and is going to Voi for an X-ray but the crew are otherwise OK. They didn't start the second section but they did complete the third and are planning to continue tomorrow morning. Car No. 49 Timothy Bennett "A fantastic day. We were cautious on the first section and had one big bang at the back when we hit a culvert. The starter motor failed at the beginning of the second section so we had to have a few push starts. The last section was flat, fast and furious. Bessy (the name of their Escort Mexico) got up to 140 kph." Car No. 50 Nick Mason "To try and avoid punctures we've been running with the tyre pressure quite hard but after I'd driven the first section this morning in all the mud I had to try and let them down to get a bit more grip. Sadly we then got a puncture on the second section and on the third. This is a fantastic event and despite problems we're enjoying it immensely." Car No. 52 Iqbal Sagoo "It's been a very good day. It wasn't actually as muddy and slippery as I expected. I found the last 15 km of the last section a bit boring." From co-driver Jurgen Bertl: "When it came to choosing which way to go at that river, I knew that the water flows fastest where it is shallowest so we chose correctly and went over the concrete." Car No. 53 Wayne Keitswetter & Rob Hellier "The first sections were slippery and there were some interesting lines. We bust a rear trailing arm before the third section and the rear end kept trying to overtake us coming down the tarmac into service but we managed to fix it. The 180B's going well but we look at one another and wonder if there isn't something wrong with the weight to power ratio."

Car No. 5 Ian Duncan Ian has decided that he and his Ford Mustang will not be continuing on the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007. "There are ten reasons for not going on and none for continuing." the Kenyan rally star revealed at lunchtime today. "I am almost two hours behind the leader and, even with the mileage still to come, I don't stand a hope of making it back in amongst the front runners even though the organisers have been good enough to put me fifth on the re-start list. What I do stand a chance of doing, however, is wrecking my car and winding up with absolutely nothing. I don't like these non-reccied events where you are driving blind off navigation notes. No matter how good they are, it is never the same as having your own notes on these rough roads. Still I enjoyed myself in what we did and I am really pleased that in eleven stages, we set three fastest times." Car No 24 Dave Kedward Since their engine expired on the first day, Dave Kedward and Crispin Sassoon have been two men in search of an engine for a Ford Escort RS1600. Initial searches were centered on Dave's home in the UK but when he learned that the engine in Alexander Hack's now-retired Escort was fully healthy, he has been contacting Mark Solloway of Historic Rally Sport whose car it is to see if a transplant could be arranged so that number 24 can continue. Double past winner of the Safari Classic, Rob Collinge, returned from the USA earlier in the week and on Wednesday combined his current sporting obsession with rallying by following the cars through to Amboseli in his gyrocopter. Fred Gallagher, Clerk of the Course on the Wales Rally GB, has taken time out of his busy schedule [the Rally GB starts in ten hours time] to point out that we were a tiny bit wide of the mark when we quoted Bjorn Waldegård as saying after the first day that he had not been in the Taita Hills since "the mid-1980s". Fred's comment was that "Well, he drove me round them every year from 1986 to 1992 !". And to good effect too since Bjorn and Fred did compete on seven Safaris on the trot in those years and won in 1986 and 1990, finished fourth on two occasions - 1989 and 1991 - were seventh in 1988, and retired in 1987 and 1992. It would be churlish of us not to mention the means by which we are able to send you this information, even from the remotest of the Safari lodges. Jonathan Somen, the Managing Director of Access Kenya, has provided the hardware plus a support crew to ensure that we can have a reliable Internet connection every day. There was a slight worry yesterday when the mini-bus transporting the Wi-Fi set-up wizard to Amboseli developed a problem, but that old-fashioned technical hitch has been the only one so far.

While this is a rest day for the men out there, perhaps it is nice to have a look at the 500 pictures from 2005. http://www.z-pointt.nl/eas2005sub/index.html

http://www.eastafricansafarirally.com/results07/reusltsday-4.htm The tussle for victory on the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 continues to provide plenty of excitement. Tonight as the cars pulled in to the Ol Tukai Lodge in Amboseli, Bjorn Waldegård still led in his Ford Escort but he had suffered a torrid day, breaking a steering arm on the first competitive section and losing four minutes to his principal rivals. Gerard Marcy in a Porsche 911, who had been in second place this morning, came up in Waldegård's dust and lost two minutes but far worse was to befall him when he took a wrong turning in the third section and lost more than a quarter of an hour. These setbacks put him fourth in the overall classification tonight. Stig Blomqvist took his Escort to its first fastest time on the third section and this was enough to catapult him up into second place ahead of Frederic Dor in a Porsche 911 so that the Historic Motorsport Escorts are currently running 1-2 on the Safari Classic. Saddest story of the day was that Ian Duncan, who set fastest times on the first two sections taking a total of two minutes out of second fastest man on both, Blomqvist, is reported to have broken his Ford Mustang's gearbox on the third section. Even if his service crew can fix the problem and get him into Amboseli, he will have dropped back considerably in the classification. Still fifth overall, despite his first taste of serious problems, is Geoff Fielding in a Porsche 911. Even eleven minutes of road penalty to fix a steering problem has not dropped him behind John Lloyd in a Datsun 240Z though the gap has narrowed to just a couple of minutes. Next up in seventh is Steve Perez, who like Fielding is a driver enjoying his first Safari, and whose Datsun 260Z is just a minute ahead of the similar car of Jonathan Savage. Rounding out the top ten are Paul-Eric Jarry in a Porsche 911 and Geoff Bell in a Datsun 180B. With just over an hour of penalties covering the top ten, all are aware that the second half of this unpredictable event can easily prove to be like a game of snakes and ladders. Generally, the competitive sections today have been very well received by the competitors since they are faster and smoother than some of the sections from the previous three days. Tomorrow, Thursday, is a rest day when the cars can receive extended service before setting out for the second half of the rally down to Tsavo West and Tanzania. The rally restarts Friday morning with a long competitive section up from Amboseli towards Emali. Provisional results for the top ten, Wednesday evening, 18:00 Pos Driver/Co-driver Vehicle Total penalty 1 Bjorn Waldegard/Mathias Waldegard Ford Escort Mk1 07h32m31s 2 Stig Blomqvist/Ana Goni Ford Escort Mk1 07h42m05s 3 Frederic Dor/Didier Breton Porsche 911 07h44m35s 4 Gerard Marcy/Alain Lopes Porsche 911 07h59m22s 5 Geoff Fielding/Preston Ayres Porsche 911 08h17m48s 6 John Lloyd/Adrian Cavenagh Datsun 240Z 08h19m46s 7 Steven Perez/Michael Stuart Datsun 260Z 08h29m10s 8 Jonathan Savage/Quentin Savage Datsun 260Z 08h30m03s 9 Paul Eric-Jarry/Craig Redelinghuys Porsche 911 08h31m43s 10 Geoff Bell/Steve Harris Datsun 180B 08h34m15s Notes on the Cars Car No. 1 Bjorn Waldegard Mr Waldegard's first exclamation as he opened the Escort's door at Amboseli was "Fie Fahn": a Swedish expression which does not indicate the day went entirely well. He suffered problems in each of the three competitive sections: a broken steering ball joint, the loss of fourth gear and a puncture. "That is Safari," he said philosophically. "One day is good and the next day is bad but this Safari is getting a little too unpredictable for my liking." Waldegard is still leading by nine and a half minutes despite these problems. Car No. 2 Stig Blomqvist Blomqvist set fastest time on the last section by a minute and a half, and second fastest times on the other two sections. He and co-driver Ana Goni got out of the Ford Escort at Amboseli looking quite fresh and pleased. "No punctures and no problems," said Blomqvist. "It's good to be here and moving up a few places." Car No. 3 Gerard Marcy There was a navigational error in the Belgian Porsche which caused a detour of about 32 kilometres which cost them just under 24 minutes on the last section. It was somewhat silent as the crew climbed out of the car at Amboseli. Marcy said: "The car is still good and there should not be too much work tomorrow." Car No. 4 Frederic Dor "We had one really phenomenal piece of luck, one of those things that happen so rarely in rallying. At the Corner Baridi service the two halves of the service crew each thought put eighty litres of petrol in but in fact neither had. I thought the gauge looked a pessimistic so I said stick another twenty litres in. In fact that was all we had and the car ran out of petrol approaching the end of the second section. We just made it into the control but then had to push it out of the control. We were so lucky." Car No. 5 Ian Duncan Having set fastest times in the first two competitive sections, Duncan broke his gearbox fifteen kilometres into the third section and is waiting retrieval by the service car. It is definitely his intention to fix the Mustang and continue on Friday morning Car No. 6 John Lloyd Lloyd suffered his first mechanical problem of the event in Mike Kirkland's Datsun 240Z. About a third of the way into the last competitive section it seemed like a rear damper had blown a seal. "We just had to nurse it the rest of the way through," said Lloyd. "But today all the stages were fantastic." Car No. 7 Keith and Mary Anne Callinan "That's the real Africa. Almost like the Nullabor but no kangaroos. We had a puncture in the first competitive section about half way through and then when we changed it the Escort fell off the jack. We hadn't done our tyre change practice like we should have done. But the rest of the day was great. We got a bit of pace and we could get the car moving and passed a couple of cars which always feels good. And the sandy stuff is always interesting - where you want to go doesn't have much relevance." Car No. 8 Steve Perez Last night the Datsun 260Z was reset on the original Riega suspension and going away from the start this morning they softened up the damper settings. The front end now seems about right and during the rest day the crew will concentrate on the rear end, probably using some of the suspension from Stefano Rocca's car. "We had no problems with the car," said Perez. "But we had to nurse the car a bit because of the suspension." Co-driver Mike Stuart said: "We had a small wrong-slot at the end of the second stage but we were so close to the finish that we could come back to the main track and I don't think it cost us any time. Steve and I are now working much better together at identifying some of these tracks and roads so we're both a bit more relaxed about that." Car No. 10 Geoff Fielding "We broke the steering rack mountings of the Porsche in the first section this morning but managed to get out with hardly any loss of time. There wasn't much we could do in the short service so we just bodged the mountings and carried on into the second stage. Of course it didn't last long but again we got it out of the stage with only a few minutes lost but then we had to fix it properly and we took probably eleven minutes road section penalty before the last stage. This meant that we had a lot of cars in front of us and to add to our woes the gear lever broke. But this doesn't mean I'm not enjoying myself and I'm still pleasantly amazed at how well we're doing." Car No. 11 Graham Alexander "The full story of our problems yesterday is that towards the end of the second stage both bolts fell out of the bottom of a front strut. We fixed it in the stage by taking one bolt out of the other strut and using it to fix the broken one. The sad part was that just a couple of kilometres after the finish of the stage we hit a massive drift and one bolt was not strong enough to hold the suspension. There was a bang and wheel and strut disappeared over the bushes. We had to wait there for our service car and lost a bundle of time before we got into Naivasha last night. Today I'm afraid that the engine has lost a couple of cylinders thanks to broken valve springs in a four cylinder 260Z. We've been driving a bit more slowly and in fact we stopped twice on the last long stage because we thought there might be someone behind us, but there wasn't." Car No. 15 Richard Martin-Hurst "You know the starter trouble we had yesterday, well it wasn't the starter. The ring gear on the aluminium flywheel had broken and thus we spent all yesterday evening taking the gearbox out to fix the flywheel. Fortunately that's now working ok and the car has gone well today to the point where we can actually say we're enjoying ourselves." Car No. 16 Steven Troman From co-driver Martin Rowe: "The car's been perfect and Steve's driven brilliantly. Today was faster and more enjoyable. It was amazing to do a 131 kilometre stage. The character was changing all the time from quick open stuff to sandy, nadgery tracks through the bush. As a co-driver it keeps you on your toes and it was a bit stressful as it's difficult navigationally. But it was just great and we finished today on a real high." Car No. 18 Jayant Shah "Well I must say it's nice to come into the parc ferme in the daylight. The car is now running really well and the only trouble we had today was on the third section when the bonnet pins came out of the front and the bonnet flew open. Fortunately we saw it happen and were able to stop before the bonnet wrapped itself round the windscreen." Car No. 19 Paul Kane "I thought the exhaust was dragging on the ground but when we got here we discovered the Pan hard rod had sheared. It always happens at the end of the day. And also the exhaust is blowing quite badly. We also had two punctures both on the same side. The last thing I want to do at the age of 61 is fix punctures." Car No. 20 Paul-Eric Jarry "Pretty good day on the whole. We had a puncture on the first stage and stopped to change it then nothing happened until two kilometres before the end of the last stage when I hit a tree. Really enjoying it." Car No. 21 Jonathan Savage "That was awesome. Lovely sections and much faster. In the last section I went a bit agricultural and nearly took out a couple of trees. We replaced the shocks yesterday but I think we might have the same problem with a bust bump stop in the rear suspension." Car No.22 Albert Michiels "We had no problems with the Porsche today and really enjoyed it. However a few things have started dropping off the car." At this point M. Michiels turned round and discovered that one of them was the driver's wing mirror. Car No. 25 John Rose "Just before we went into the second stage we could hear a noise and when we looked we thought it was just the exhaust touching but ten kilometres into the stage a propshaft universal joint failed at high speed. It didn't come into the cockpit but we knew we needed a spare to fix it. I couldn't get a mobile signal where we are but a guy passing on a motocross bike leant the bike to me and I went up the hill to get a signal. Then he leant me the bike to go and get the bike which Michael then fitted." It should be noted that John was Kenyan motocross champion in 1970 and still rides enduros to keep fit for rallying. Car No. 26 Josef Pointinger "We had a little bit of everything today. Before the first stage the Escort got a misfire and this stayed with us all the way through the section. We changed the plugs before the second stage and that was fine but then we met a whole herd of cows which didn't want to make way for the car. On the last section we nearly hit a private car coming the other way. It was much much faster today: too fast for our car but the last section was really good." Car No. 29 Aslam Khan "We had a good day today. There were no problems and now we're just going to try to drive for a finish. We lost the intercom for the last 70 kilometres of the last section." From the co-driver: "Losing the intercom was fine - it meant the driver couldn't swear at me." Car No. 30 Hardev Singh Sira The Peugeot 504 went fine and completed all three competitive sections. Unfortunately on the first section the tripmetre automatically recalibrated itself and began to run slow which meant a triple caution jump came up with no warning. The Peugeot took a bit of a nosedive and damaged the front but both the crew and the car were fine. The biggest effect was to lower the engine in the chassis by bending the cross member. The crew drove the next two sections and really enjoyed them. Car No. 31 Imi Dewji "It was nice to have a full day's rallying at last." From co-driver Gabriele Mahler: "No problems, nice fast roads: good for the car, good for us." Car No. 32 Larry Horn "We had a nice day and the sections were much more interesting. The car's been fine." Car No. 33 Roddy Sachs '"Really enjoying it and going well. Nothing with the car - all we had to do was put petrol in it." Car No. 34 Ian and Val Swan "Nice to do three stages and not give the boys any work to do. All we did all day was take petrol and replace one tyre. We really enjoyed these fast stages. The road book was excellent and everything came up just spot on." Car No. 41 Kurt Vanderspinnen "Our problems really started after the first stage on the first day. When we came out onto the main road the car was losing power and when we got to the main service it was decided that we should change all four pistons in the Volvo engine. That took us about ten hours and we got into Nairobi at three in the morning. Second day was a little better with three punctures but then on the third day we broke a wheel on a rock hidden in the grass on the first section and as a result the car was stuck and needed a service car to come in and get it out so that was the only stage we did that day. However today has gone really nicely and hopefully our problems are behind us and we can enjoy the second half of the rally." Car No. 42 Bert Dolk "Today was great. I really liked the last section. It was really good: flat out in fourth gear. We were running a bit low on fuel and no way of accurately measuring it so we decided to take it easy through the last twenty kilometres but overall it was great." Car No. 43 Tim Mammen "We caught Martin-Hurst's Capri on the first stage and at one point thought that we might even get past but we had a small off in his dust and bent a front tie rod which slowed us a bit but was worse when it actually snapped six kilometres from the end of the stage. But now it's fixed, although the car still handles peculiarly. And hopefully we can find the cause for that tomorrow. Incidentally I can confirm that today we were running with the full set of wheel nuts." Car No. 44 Neil McGrigor "It was a good day but it was more suited to the faster cars. Those Datsuns excelled in the circumstances so they've been catching us up on the straight bits but then we were catching them in the twist sections, regretting having let them past before. We had no problems today so it's been the best day we've had yet." Car No. 45 Geoff Bell "A good run until the last stage. When we slowed for a triple caution bump the car slid off in the sand, into the ditch and bent the steering. To add insult to injury while we got out of the ditch and fixed it several cars went through." Car No. 46 Minesh Rathod "The car finally behaved today and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Our problems were mainly on the first day when we broke a left arm on the front suspension during the first stage and lost the steering on the second stage. Every day after that we had problems with the idler arm bending but that is now pretty well sorted." Car No. 47 Peter Harland "Today was lovely. Really nice stages and very fast. The navigator did extremely well and the car is running like a humming bird. We also caught someone which always makes you feel good." Car No. 48 Ekya and Prina Shah "We had a great day. It was just a shame that the car stopped in the middle of the last section and wouldn't start. We had to get the service crew in and it was then we found out one of the leads had pulled off the distributor." Car No. 49 Jeremy Bennett "We're very much alive and kicking. In fact we're getting quite extrovert. In the middle of the last stage we turned a little early in a village and to correct things I had to do a 360 spin in the middle of the village square in front of all the school children who seemed to find it very entertaining." Car No. 50 Nick Mason "The problem yesterday was a whole lot of damage in the rear end including not just the differential carrier beam but also quite a lot of the bodywork supports. We had to totally rebuild the entire rear end. Today we've had just one small problem, comparatively: the left rear damper has popped through the turret but that's not hard to fix. After the event I need to go home, think about what happened, and how to prepare the car accordingly." From co-driver Adrian Grinstead: "Yes it's definitely a car wrecker this one." Car No. 58 Michel Puchercos "We hit a few birds today but that was the worst thing since we didn't get lost despite it being hard to find the right way at the end of the third section. The car is very solid and doesn't seem to give any trouble and we're going well." Cars Nos 12 & 14 Alexander Hack and Bo Axlesson have retired and the cars are on the way to Mombasa.

Carl, these are from 2005 http://www.z-pointt.nl/easlarryH.htm

DAY THREE - Tuesday : NAIVASHA TO NAIVASHA The ever-changing fortunes of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 swung in the direction of Bjorn Waldegård's Ford today. The overnight leader, Gerard Marcy, fastest in the first competitive section by almost a minute and half (not half a minute as first reported) suffered one of the problems that occurs to those running first on the road. His co-driver, Alain Lopes missed seeing a turn off onto a smaller track on the second section and, as fate would have it, there was a similar one just beyond it. The Porsche 911 lost more than ten minutes to it rivals and slipped back into second place. Behind them, Frederic Dor kept hold on third place in his Porsche 911 despite breaking a clutch cable in the first section and having fourth placed man, Stig Blomqvist, catch him with his Ford Escort. Graham Alexander had the great misfortune to fall into an unseen dip shortly after the end of the second section and managed to rip off one complete side of his front suspension. Whether his Datsun 260Z is reparable is open to question but one thing is certain, he is no longer holding down fifth place. That is now held by Geoff Fielding in a Porsche 911 with John Lloyd sixth in his Datsun 260Z. Biggest news of the morning was the fact that Stephano Rocca, at that point best local driver, had rolled his Datsun 260Z in the first section. At first it looked as if he might be able to continue but then it was discovered that the safety roll cage was broken and he was forced to retire. This promoted Ian Duncan to best local with his Ford Mustang in seventh place ahead of Steve Perez in a Datsun 260Z. More African drivers now fill out the top ten with Geoff Bell having brought his Datsun 180B up from sixteenth place to ninth and Jonathan Savage, Datsun 260Z having risen from fifteenth to tenth. However, the most improved driver of the day must be Steve Troman who has come from nineteenth to place his Porsche 911 in eleventh place overall just a minute behind Savage. For all the crews, there is much more to come as the rally leaves Naivasha in the morning to head south via three longer and tougher sections to the night halt in Amboseli where, in the heart of the game reserve, they and their cars will have a day of rest on Thursday before tacking four more days of relentless rallying. Provisional top ten classification Pos Crew Car Penalty 1. Bjorn Waldegård/Mathias Waldegård Ford Escort 5hr 08m 15s 2 Gerard Marcy/Alain Lopes Porsche 911 5hr 12m 45s 3. Frederic Dor/Didier Breton Porsche 911 5hr 22m 06s 4. Stig Blomqvist/Ana Goni Ford Escort 5hr 23m 47s 5. Geoff Fielding/Preston Ayres Porsche 911 5hr 33m 56s 6. John Lloyd/Adrian Cavenagh Datsun 240Z 5hr 42m 05s 7. Ian Duncan/Amaar Slatch Ford Mustang 5hr 42m 15s 8. Steve Perez/Michael Stuart Datsun 260Z 5hr 51m 21s 9. Geoff Bell/Steve Harris Datsun 180B 5hr 52m 51s 10. Jonathan Savage/Quentin Savage Datsun 260Z 5hr 54m 05s Car No. 1 Bjorn Waldegard "We had a left front puncture seven kilometres from the end of the last section but we drove out on it. The sections were brilliant and we were clean apart from the puncture. It was very difficult for the navigator but Mathias was spot on. He hurt his back slightly on the transport section but it's fine now." On taking the lead from Marcy he said: " The Safari is an event that always levels things out. It has its ups on downs. You can't use any tactics except to play it safe." Car No. 2 Gerard Marcy and Alain Lopes They made a navigational error on the second section and lost about ten minutes. The car was first on the road and there were no tracks to follow and co-driver Lopes reported there were two junctions that exactly corresponded with the tulip within 100m of each other. They unfortunately took the second and it wasn't until 6km later they realised the mistake and then had to retrace their steps, making a 12km detour in all. Alain Lopes said: "It's a shame because this is my last competitive rally. After this I will only be doing regularity events." Car No. 3 Stig Blomqvist "No problems and no punctures. Anyway, this was better than the other two days." Car No. 4 Frederic Dor The clutch cable of the Porsche 911 failed in the first section but they were second fastest in the second section. "We lost a lot of time," said Dor. "And we only had second and fourth gear for those passage controls on the Delamere estate. But we fixed it and it was fine for the second section. I think we did a good time." Car No. 5 Ian Duncan The Mustang had a puncture on the first section when they hit a rock hidden in the grass. They stopped and changed it. The car arrived at Naivasha with no starter motor. "Something clicks down there," said Duncan. "But nothing turns." Car No. 6 John Lloyd The 240Z has pulled up from ninth to sixth place, just in front of Ian Duncan. They lost a service car this morning but it has now been replaced. "This is the third day in a row there's been no punctures and nothing broken. We had a clean run and I think we pulled up some places. It's taken me a couple of days to get into my pace but when you've got Duncan behind you tend to put your foot down." Car No. 7 Keith and Mary-Ellen Callinan "Today was just wonderful. It's been our first day without drama and we've found a pace we're happy with. Unfortunately we were in really bad dust on the first section but the Escort was great and not even the wheel alignment was out." Car No. 8 Steve Perez "We had a rear differential cross member come loose towards the end of the second section and that slowed us a bit." The suspension on the 260Z was proving troublesome and Perez was last seen negotiating with the service crew of Rocca to try and acquire his complete spare set. Car No. 10 Geoff Fielding "The car is fantastic and we had a nice day," said Fielding still with a slight air of amazement after discovering they were now lying fifth in their Porsche 911. "There's actually more dust on the road sections than on the competitive sections." Car No. 11 Graham Alexander The extremely competitive Australian Datsun 260Z was apparently caught out by a large car-sized hole shortly after the end of the second section. The impact ripped a lot of the front suspension out and, at this point, it's not known if the car is reparable sufficiently to continue on Wednesday morning. Car No.12 Bo Axelsson The clutch went on the Escort and they didn't complete the second section. Car No. 14 Alex Hack "I had a slightly loose steering arm which we fixed after the first section. There was a lot of dust from the other cars. It seems to be a pattern with us: we drive then we break something, we drive then we break something but what will be, will be." Without their considerable road penalties incurred for service their Escort would be a lot better placed in results. Car No. 15 Richard Martin-Hurst No punctures today but some starter motor problems on the last road section. "I've never driven on such a rough road and over such rocks as on that approach to the first competitive section. It was even worse than the old Liege when it went into Yugoslavia after the Skopje earthquake." Car No. 16 Steve Troman They had noise from a driveshaft when they went to start the first section this morning and they changed both after the section. "It was a bit narrow in the grass sections of that first section," said Troman. "On the second section we broke the top of one of the rear dampers and that had to be fixed at service. We also had a puncture but that was on the road section. Martin (Rowe) was great and is doing a lot to keep me in check and up to scratch." Car No. 18 Aslam Shah From co-driver Lofty Drews: "The head gasket we fitted yesterday is behaving itself and we had - for us - a relatively trouble-free day. We were plagued by a misfire for both competitive sections which turned out to be thanks to the distributor wires not being properly refitted. We only discovered it by the purest chance before Naivasha." Car No. 19 Paul & Mary-Ellen Kane Second competitive section today - Tuesday - broke the front suspension of their Ford Mustang, opposite side to the one they broke yesterday - Monday - but hope to re-start tomorrow - Wednesday. Car No. 20 Paul-Eric Jarry "We broke a rim three kilometres before the end of the first section and it cost us at least four minutes as we had to stop and change the wheel. The worst thing today, like yesterday, has been the main road diversions which are really bad." Car No. 21 Jonathan Savage "It was quite tough today. We had a good first section but I think we broke a strut on the back in the second section because we hit something and we've got a badly bent rim so we had to back off for the rest of the section. It was an amazing drive down into Kerio - there were some serious drops." Car No. 25 John Rose This is a farm-built rally car using Stuart Wilkin's parts from Australia and built by John's son, Lee, who has been Kenya national rally champion and Mike Mwangi. "We did a really good first section but then we had a puncture on the second on the descent into Kerio valley. The Callinans came past us but were really nice to let us back through when we caught them later. Our final problem today was from the fuel pumps that could not, for some reason, pull the petrol through the filters which we had to bypass. We lost ten minutes on the road." Car No. 26 Josef Pointinger "We had a broken throttle cable spring before the second section but we fixed it before we had to start." Car No. 27 Stefano Rocca The ex-Collinge 260Z (which won the 2003 and 2005 Safari Classics) unfortunately rolled on the first section. The crew are fine but the rollcage is too damaged for them to continue. "I made a mistake," said Rocca. "I was going too fast in the dust and hit a rock. It was one slow roll but it was enough. I should have slowed down but it's so difficult when you're racing." Car No. 29 Aslam Khan Yesterday the Escort damaged a rose joint when they hit a rock. They had no spare and the service vehicle couldn't come into the section until the other cars had finished. They had a very late return into Naivasha. "We had a much better day today. We drove very safely and soundly without any risks." Car No. 32 Larry Horn "After yesterday's disaster today was great. It was challenging but a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to tomorrow after a long shower." Car No. 33 Roddy Sachs Unfortunately the Datsun 180B hit a rock five kilometres into the first section. It broke the track rod, bent the camber arm and generally deranged the steering. "I made a mistake," said Sachs. "We tried to fix it but it wasn't right in the second section either." Car No. 36 Shaheed Wissanji "We've had no power all day. We've been pushed up hills and it's very frustrating. We're going to look at the engine now but we have no real idea what it is. We think it maybe fuel supply to the carburettors. We also had a broken rear suspension arm but that's changed now so it's just the engine we have to sort out before the morning." Car No. 37 David Rayner "The good news is that the air conditioning is working perfectly. The bad news is that we broke a rear spring twenty kilometres before the end of the second stage just before the ford. We kept going and it all hung together and we had it changed at service." Car No. 40 Jeremy Bennett "We finished - that's the main thing. We were quick on the first section but took it carefully on God's Bridge." Car No. 43 Tim Mammen "We've been a bit lucky today. We had two punctures, one was in the parc ferme overnight and the other was on the road section between the two stages but we did have a self-inflicted problem after the second stage. In service we checked the suspension and unfortunately one rear wheel didn't have its nuts tightened up. We almost lost it on the main road and, in fact, we're still one wheel nut missing." Car No. 44 Neil McGrigor Yesterday the Escort had several problems. They had a "misunderstanding" with one of the corners in the first section which was much tighter than they thought and burst two tyres and wrote off the rims. In the second section they got stuck in the same waterhole as them team mates Bennett/Chesser and had to dry out their electrics. In the same section the back brake pipe was ripped out and they had to the last section with no rear brakes. "I didn't tell my co-driver until after the section," said McGrigor. "But today was fantastic although we now have some problems with the clutch. We took it relatively easily but we're very pleased." Car No. 45 Geoff Bell The Datsun 180B has pulled up six places to tenth place ahead of the car's preparer Roddy Sachs in another 180B. "We had a very good day. There were a couple of overshoots in the first section but it wasn't a navigational error - just me driving too fast in the dust. The car's great. It's really nimble in the twisty sections and we caught the Savages in their 260Z. I'd like to do more competitive sections. I used to navigate for Vic Preston Junior in the Alfas (with Sachs as the manager) and I even remember some of the roads." Car No. 47 Peter Harland The brakes on the 260Z developed a problem in the second section. The pedal box rod had worked loose and the pedal became longer and longer. "We've gone through a set of tyres," said Harland. "But otherwise alright." Car No. 50 Nick Mason The 260Z left this morning and missed the first competitive section to try and get the rear cross member and differential fixed. They did the second section but the cross member must have broken again as they arrived at Naivasha with the wheel hanging out of the wheel arch. Car No. 52 Iqbal Sagoo From co-driver Jurgen Bertl: "Just 700 metres before the end of the second stage we were brought to a halt because the right rear wheel wouldn't turn. I got out of the car and it was just possible to move it forward under power so I had to run the last part of the stage. When we got the car jacked up we found that not only was the suspension arm broken but it had lost all its bolts. We fixed a couple of new ones in and have got it into Naivasha where we can now replace the whole arm." Car No. 53 Wayne Kiesbetter and Rob Hellier "Another good day. We just had to change the damper bushes again." Car No. 57 Harvinder Dhanjal "We're really impressed with the tyres we've got from Silverstone which seem to standing up to the punishment amazingly well. The only problems today was a few bolts came loose on the front suspension and now we stop after every stage and check them. Oh yes, and all our spotlights fell off the front." Car No. 58 Michel Puchercos "I really liked the first section: fast and good to drive. The ignition problem we had from the first day now seems to be completely solved - and we had no punctures."

http://picasaweb.google.nl/datsunholland/Eas2007/photo#s5137650909100089794

Daily update http://picasaweb.google.nl/datsunholland/Eas2007/photo#s5136922663035313586

Dhanjal, Harvinder Dor, Frederic Perez, Steve Waldegard, Bjorn

http://www.eastafricansafarirally.com/results07/reusltsday-2.htm Car No. 1 Bjorn Waldegard "We had a puncture on the first section then Marcy passed us so we were in his dust. We then tried to take something back in the second competitive section but we had another puncture - on the front this time. But we were bloody to quick to change them - my son is a good mechanic. I think we lost about five to six minutes in all." Car No. 2 Gerard Marcy "Of course, after the first section we were leading on the road as well as leading the rally so we had the job of meeting all the hazards first. We hit two goats and a sheep and finally a taxi that was coming the other way. No big damage but Alain's foot is worn out from pressing the horn button. We had no punctures and I am driving at ninety per cent to try and keep it that way." From Richard Tuthill: "It's fantastic to be where we are at the moment with four of our Porsches in the top ten. But one must not count one's chickens as there is a lot more rallying to go." Car No. 3 Stig Blomqvist From co-driver Ana Goni: "Not a good day. We had two punctures on different stages and the first puncture split the rim and cut the brake pipe so we were really slow and then of course we lost time with the other puncture as well." Car No. 4 Frederic Dor "There were no real problems. The way to go fast today was to avoid the punctures. The steering became loose on the Porsche 911 during the last section so I had to go slow. There was still a problem from yesterday with its fixing. The stages are great. Luckily I have Marcy clearing the road for us." Car No. 5 Ian Duncan "The first section was good for us but then we had two rear punctures on the second. We had the second just five kilometres after the first. The rim was damaged and the car dropped off the jack and somehow loosened the rear brake connection thus we had to finish the section without much in the way of brakes. And then work like hell in service to get the car mobile again. I nearly finished the rally going away from service when a rally car in front of me slowed up for some goats and I discovered my brakes were not yet one hundred per cent." Car No. 6 John Lloyd "Again there were no problems with the 240Z. I haven't broken anything and we haven't any punctures. Only problem was the road section into Naivasha." Car No. 7 Keith Callinan "Unfortunately we made a navigational error going out to the first section and got stuck on a highway and couldn't turn around so we missed that section. We made the second and really enjoyed the third - it had nice flowing fast bits you could actually drive. The Escort's been great and there's no problems " Car No. 8 Steve Perez Unfortunately co-driver, Mike Stuart had turned over two pages of the road book in the first section and they got lost. They turned round and passed another car so they turned again only to find the other car stopped with a puncture. But they were able to confirm that this was the right road. They also had the front suspension break on that first section - compression strut broke away from main body. On the third section they think they have broken a bar which helps to retain the differential and rear axle. Car No. 9 Iain Freestone The Escort rolled in the first competitive section and though retrieved and found to still be in working condition, after examination by the scrutineers, it has been mutually decided it will not re-start. Iain Freestone: "We gave it a good reason to roll. It was a fast bend slightly downhill and we went in far too fast. The pile of rocks on the outside didn't help at all. My back hurts but the doctor says I will just be stiff." Deputy Clerk of the Course, Mike Summerfield, suggested Iain's next Safari car could be a "Roller". Car No. 10 Geoff Fielding "The event is beyond my expectations. And to make it even better, I'm lying sixth. If I finish in the top ten it will be like winning the rally for me!" Car No. 11 Graham Alexander "Everything is OK. The 260Z is going well and there's no complaints. It's a bit rougher than the last East African Safari Classic and I think everyone's driving a bit tougher as well." Car No. 12 Bo Axlesson Retired the Escort in first section with a broken rear axle. From Mark Solloway: "I have never seen anything like it before in my life. The inner end of the half shaft broke inside the differential and then exploded. It's broken the differential casing and the axle tube. We have spares and we shall try to get the new axle in it this evening but first I need to find a bearing press." Car No. 14 Alex Hack "We had a very good run through today. We hit a rock on the second section and bent the rim but it didn't puncture. However just three kilometres from the end of the third section we did have a puncture. We had a odometer problem and thought it was only a couple of kilometres to the end of the section so decided to drive on which was a big mistake as it was a quite a bit further. So we eventually we had to stop to change the tyre and lost more time than if we'd stopped in the first place. To top it all, the other rear tyre had got so hot driving the car on its own that it too failed before the end of the section." Car No. 15 Richard Martin-Hurst "We popped a front shock absorber on the first section and it lost all its oil so we had to change the insert at the first service. Apart from that no problems except some nice person threw a rock and broke our screen while we were trying to negotiate that horrible diversion between Nakuru and Naivasha." Car No. 16 Stephen Troman "We have tripled our rally experience in a single day. We hit a culvert on the first section and shot four feet in the air and spun as we landed. This was a self-inflicted error which we are trying not to repeat. We did break a rear damper in the third section but generally the Porsche 911 is OK and we haven't had any punctures." Car No. 19 Paul and Mary-Ellen Kane The front suspension of the Mustang came apart twenty kilometres before the end of the second section so they took maximum penalties on the last two sections. Car No. 20 Paul-Eric Jarry "It was a good day but there were a couple of trucks in the competitive section." When asked about some damage to the Porsche's roo-bar: "We hit a rock which was a bit off the road." Car No. 21 Jonathan Savage "We had no punctures on the 260Z although we had four yesterday - I don't know how we did it. On the last section the engine cut out a kilometre from the end. It was the high tension lead for the distributor. We fixed it but the engine cut out again and I realised I had forgotten to reconnect the fuel pumps. I think we lost about 2-3 minutes." Car No. 22 Albert Michiels "We had one puncture on the first section and two punctures on the second section. Happily this pattern did not repeat itself for the third section. The Porsche is good and seems to like this kind of rallying." Car No. 23 Paul Darrouzet They broke the rear suspension on the first section and are taking maximum penalties for the other sections today. Car No. 24 David Kedward The water pump on the Escort failed yesterday and the car did not continue today. Car No. 25 John Rose "Not a brilliant day, we had one puncture per section and stopped and changed them each time. The worst was the first puncture where the rim broke and the car went down so that we couldn't get the jack under. Fortunately a group of Masai helped us lift the car and we got going again. I'm driving like my grandmother to save punctures but we have to find some solution because I cant go any slower." Car No. 26 Josef Pointinger "We had a puncture on the first section ten kilometres from the end. Some places were rough - not even an Austrian farmer would drive over this in their tractor - but we're here for the Safari." Amazingly, Pointenger recalled that on the 2003 Safari Classic, he broke a rear leaf spring on this Escort and was given a second hand replacement by Iain Freestone. "And it is the same one that is on the car today." Car No. 27 Stefano Rocca "There were no problems for us. We even had time to tops and wash the car at service. The second section was the toughest I've seen in all my time living in Kenya. I've competed in three modern Safaris in the 1990's and this is definitely much tougher." Car No. 29 Aslam Khan They had suspension problems in the Escort in the second section and took maximum penalties for the last section. Car No. 33 Roddy Sachs "We had a very good day. It was a bit a rough in patches but there were some super sections - it's a pity there weren't more." Car No. 34 Ian & Val Swan The clutch centre in the Volvo pulled out on the first section so the service crew came in and towed it straight to service in Naivasha. It will hopefully start again tomorrow morning "We made a lot of friends with the local tribesmen," said Val. "And gave them all the baseball caps from the rallies we've done in the past. You take the good with the bad and tomorrow is another day." Car No. 36 Shaheed Wissanji "It was an excellent day. It was very rough in the second section. They weren't even rocks - they were boulders. We changed the bushes on the shocks. It was a good day and we hope we can keep it that way." This is the same BMW 2002 driven by Simon Sharpe and Denis Burnett drove to tenth place in the 2005 East African Safari Classic except it's now white instead of orange! Car No. 37 David Rayner. The connection between the end of the Capri's steering rack and the steering arm came off in the first section. "We came off the road and went straight into the bushes," said Rayner. "We fixed it but then it happened again later in the section." The Rayners will start again tomorrow morning. Car No. 40 Jeremy Bennett "We got stuck in a mud hole in the first section. The locals helped us push it out and we opened the bonnet to let the electrics dry out in the Kenyan sun - it only took about ten minutes. We ran out of petrol on the road section just as we drove into a petrol station but they were closed so we filled it up with Jerry can." Car No. 42 Bert Dolk "We have had two problems today. One is the front spring seats on the bottom wishbones which are collapsing despite being highly strengthened. And the other was the rear mounting for the gearbox which bent and we had to take it off and straighten it. All this meant we had to miss the third section and go straight to Naivasha. My goodness, I used to think that the old RAC rally was the roughest thing I had done but I've had to revise my opinion." Car No. 43 Tim Mammen "We had an average day which was spoilt by losing second gear in the first section which meant we had to drive all day in a rather conservative fashion. We will change the box tonight but it's quite a lot of work as we have to also change the differential to match the different ratios in the new gearbox." Car No. 45 Geoff Bell "It was a long dusty day but there were no problems except the steering box became loose. But that was nothing compared to yesterday when the steering wheel became loose in the Taitas. We've sorted yesterday's problems with the shocks by making them softer." Car No. 47 Peter Harland "It was exhausting but very good. I had a couple of close calls in the first stage going sideways and the car stalled again but I had a lot of fun." Car No. 48 Ekya and Prina Shah They missed the last section yesterday because of a broken oil pipe but today was clean. "Today's been fine," they said. "Some interesting roads and very rocky." Car No. 50 Nick Mason "We broke one rim and buckled another. Part of the problem may be that we dropped the tyre pressures to try and save the dampers from overheating. We carry a lot of weight in this Datsun 260Z as we don't have a management car to carry our petrol and thus it runs with the full one hundred litres all the time." From co-driver Adrian Grinstead: "We're jumping around so much I can't tick the notes off in the roadbook and I'm strapped into the seat so tight that my bum has gone completely numb." Car No. 52 Iqbal Sagoo The rear left wheel came off in the first section and took the brake calliper with it. "The wheel passed us and went off way into the distance," said Sagoo. "We put the spare on but we had no spare calliper so we had a missing brake for the rest of the day." Car No. 53 Wayne Kieswetter / Rob Hellier "It was all fun. A little bit rough but that's what the Safari is about." Car No. 58 Michel Puchercos "No problems, a good day, and no punctures."

It took only ten kilometres of the first competitive section on Monday morning to change the leader board of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007. Overnight leader, Bjorn Waldegård, had a rear puncture on his Ford Escort RS1600. He and his co-driver, son Mathias, changed the wheel very quickly and were just ready to continue when Gerard Marcy swept past in his Porsche 911. For the rest of the section, some forty kilometres, Waldegård had to stay behind in the dust and thus lost the lead to Marcy. On the next section, Waldegård had another puncture which he also changed and lost time again. For Marcy, taking the lead was a mixed blessing. He did not have to worry about dust from rally cars in front, but he was now first car on the road and in the next two competitive sections had close encounters with two goats, a sheep and a taxi. He had no punctures during the day but his car bore the scars of these encounters as it came into the night halt in Naivasha still in the lead. Third at the end of the first day was the second Historic Motorsport Escort of Stig Blomqvist but he too was to suffer with punctures. His first one split the wheel rim and carried away a brake pipe while the second one just cost him time. This dropped him to fourth and, after the first section, promoted Ian Duncan to third. The local hero had taken the fastest time on the first section with his Ford Mustang but then he too was hit with punctures, this time two on the same stage. As with Blomqvist, the effect was to loosen his brake coupling which meant that he lost almost twenty minutes in the section and then had to work hard in service to get the car roadworthy again. He dropped to eighth in the placings at the end of the day. The problems that beset Blomqvist and Duncan promptly promoted Frederic Dor in a Porsche into third place while behind the leading quartet, Graham Alexander, running steadily in his Datsun 260Z held a comfortable fifth place ahead of Geoff Fielding's Porsche 911. Just behind them Stefano Rocca was fractionally ahead of Duncan and holding seventh place. Rounding out the top ten was John Lloyd in the ex-Mike Kirkland Datsun 240Z in ninth with yet another Tuthill Porsche 911, that of Steve Troman in tenth. In eleventh place is a very happy Roddy Sachs with the first of his three Datsun 180Bs. The other two, driven by Geoff Bell and Wayne Kieswelter, are lying fifteenth and nineteenth. The rally tomorrow will visit Elementaita and then back to the Kerio Valley before returning for the night halt at Naivasha. The competitive section through Elburgon has been cancelled due to the large number of almost impassable mud holes left by the recent rains.

http://www.eastafricansafarirally.com/results07/reusltsday-1.htm

After the first three stages of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007, the established flyers are showing the way. Bjorn Waldegård of Sweden in a Ford Escort RS1600 leads Gerard Marcy from Belgium in a Porsche 911 by just over thirty seconds with Stig Blomqvist, also from Sweden and also in a Ford Escort RS1600, just over a minute behind the Porsche. All three leaders have had some slight mechanical problems mainly due to the extremely tough going on the second stage in the Taita Hills but these were restricted to bent or damaged components rather than broken ones Fourth overall and best local driver is Ian Duncan in his formidable Ford Mustang who has kept the leading three well in sight and lies a minute and a half behind them. After that the gaps between the cars start to increase. Frederic Dor who hit something in the Taitas and broke his Porsche's steering rack was lucky to get out of the stage with only the loss of a few minutes and thus hung on to fifth place. Datsuns are the most prolific cars on the Safari Classic and thus it is little wonder to find 240Z and 260Zs occupying the next four places. Best of these is the 240Z of John Rose, just over a minute behind Dor followed closely by Graham Alexander from Australia in a 260Z. Another Kenyan this one in a 260Z, Stefano Rocca, is eighth and Englishman, John Lloyd with Kenyan co-driver, Adrian Cavenagh, lies ninth in a 240Z. Rounding out the top ten is Safari novice, Geoff Fielding from England driving a Porsche 911. All ten cars are covered by a mere twelve minutes which tends to suggest that as this tough rally moves into its second day and goes to longer stage in the Rift Valley, the final result could be very close. So far, the weather has been dry with no more than a handful of mud holes to enliven things and the forecast for the next few days is good. Competitors checking into the service area at the Nairobi Safari Park were greeted by Eric Cecil, the man who practically invented the original Safari Rally, won it once and organised it many times. Eric has made the long journey up from his home in Australia to see the action and to attend the Gala Dinner on Sunday night. PROVISIONAL RESULTS AT 20:00 WITH CARS STILL BEING SERVICED Pos. Driver / Co-driver Vehicle Total penalties 1 Waldegard / Waldegard Ford Escort Mk1 01:28:33 2 Marcy / Lopes Porsche 911 01:29:09 3 Blomqvist / Goni Ford Escort Mk1 01:32:23 4 Duncan / Slatch Ford Mustang 01:34:01 5 Dor / Breton Porsche 911 01:37:30 6 Rose / Borrisow Datsun 240Z 01:38:47 7 Alexander / Runnels Datsun 260Z 01:39:04 8 Rocca / Daykin Datsun 260Z 01:39:58 9 Lloyd / Cavenagh Datsun 240Z 01:40:12 10 Fielding / Ayres Porsche 911 01:40:20

The Friday evening welcome party for competitors and officials was well attended. Amongst the speakers welcoming them to the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 were Surinder Thatthi, Event Director, and Titus Naikuni, CEO of Kenya Airways. The event patron, Joginder Singh, three times winner of the original East African Safari - in 1965, 1974 and 1976 - spoke on his feelings to see the classic event reviving the old traditions : "It is almost like the original Safari Rally and remains a very tough rally for man and machine". He was joined by Kipchoge "Kip" Keino, Kenya's father of long distance running and a double Olympic Gold medallist (1,500m at Mexico City in 1968 and 3,000m steeplechase at Munich in 1972), who expressed his affinity to the endurance aspect of a rally like the Safari Classic. The evening finished with the revelation that it was Titus Naikuni's birthday and, to the sound of music and dancing, a vast cake in the form of a Porsche 911 was carried in for him to cut and share with the competitors. Even the Ford Escort drivers had a piece, although they probably would like to devour Porsches in another sense. The twin Escort Mexicos of Neil McGrigor and Jeremy Bennett (car nos 44 and 49) are supporting the "Alive and Kicking" charity that aims to bring sport to children throughout Africa. Thanks to their own contributions and those of family, friends and other competitors, they have already raised over three million Kenyan shillings (£25,000) and hope, with new support gathered during the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally to practically double that. They set off for the ceremonial start under the tusks on Moi avenue in Mombasa with both Escorts packed full of special "Alive and Kicking" footballs. Dave Kedward and Crispin Sassoon have not spent tranquil days in the run up to the Safari Classic. Their Ford Escort RS1600 has been shedding cam belts and it was not until yesterday, after changing everything else on the front of the engine, that they discovered that the idler that keeps the belt wrapped firmly round the main pulleys was running out of true. A long session in a Mombasa workshop saw the idler shaft drilled and bushed and the engine is now running happily. But with two cam belts already damaged, they are anxiously awaiting the arrival of more spares of this usually reliable component from England. Geoff Fielding confessed to having a personal contest with a local bacterium but is hoping to take solid food before the rally commences. There were a few minor problems at scrutineering including the Triumph GT6 Mk2 of Quentin Mitchell and Russell Savage which did not have a complete fireproof bulkhead. It re-presented at scrutineering this morning and passed. This little sports car was first found covered in dust in an alley just off the Nairobi-Mombasa road last July. The preparation work on the car was finished last night and its first drive was from the workshop to scrutineering. It now appears a lot taller than its original state due to a substantial increase in its front ride height. The car has a few interesting modifications, including a hole in the bonnet to accommodate the throttle linkage pivot. Apparently the team were thinking of attaching a flag to the pivot so they would know when they are going flat out. The car will be passing near where it was first discovered when the rally starts proper tomorrow morning and heads up towards Nairobi. Ben Muchemi and George Njoroge also have to ensure that the bulkhead in their Alfa Romeo Alfetta is fireproof to pass scrutineering after the ceremonial start whilst Jayant Shah and Lofty Drews had to properly secure the passenger seat of their 260Z. This is something which Mr Drews will probably be glad of later on in the rally, though some unkind fellow did say it had always been difficult to tie Lofty down. Under the leadership of John Cooper, the scrutineers at the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally have managed to strike an excellent balance of meticulous application of the rules and attention to safety whilst also helping the competitors as much as possible to overcome any technical problems. The drivers' briefing saw the introduction of some advances in the starting system from previous years. The "traffic light" system similar to that used on the World Rally Championship will be used at all competitive section starts. As with normal traffic lights, the competitor gets a red, then red and amber, then a countdown of the last five seconds with segments of the amber light disappearing, and finally a green light. At the end of competitive sections, dust precludes the use of light beams and often obscures manual signals such as flags. Thus the Safari Classic will use a manually operated button pressed once for each car that communicates directly with the timing machinery at the stop line. After an excellent demonstration of the new system by Mike Summerfield it seems likely that the only traffic lights providing problems may be those on the entry to Nairobi. The organisers also utilised the briefing to emphasise the camaraderie that surrounds the event in terms of stopping and reporting incidents to the marshals. If they see an accident where the crew has not displayed their "OK" board to show that they are uninjured, they are requested to stop and investigate. With one doctor flying in the helicopter and two others on the event and ambulances handy, help should never be far away. This spirit of camaraderie was supported by the announcement of a "team award" in which teams of three to five cars can be entered based on manufacturer, club, nationality or simply friendship. Keeping cool during the rally can often be difficult with temperatures in excess of body heat inside the cockpit, but the Ford Capri of David and Sarah Rayner should be OK as they still have the original air conditioning fitted. Mind you, they needed a bit of cooling down when they discovered that the starter motor had decided not to work. Fortunately it was only the spiral slide for the drive pinion that was sticking and once this was re-lubricated, all was well again. A last minute hitch also arose in the Peugeot 504 Coupe of Hardev Singh Sira and Uwe Kurtzenberger which developed a clutch problem and now requires work before the rally starts tomorrow. As the cars bunched up in front of the Whitesands Sarova Hotel for their police escorted run in to the ceremonial start, Frederic Dor was seen eyeing up Ian Duncan's Mustang which will start two minutes behind him on Monday morning. His concern ? He wondered if the American muscle car had sufficient ground clearance to pass over his Porsche 911. Jurgen Bertl is a dyed-in-the-wool Safari fan and was here for the 2003 Safari Classic with a tiny Skoda and then in 2005 with a Porsche 911. The Porsche was sold to Iqbal Sagoo from the USA and Jurgen somehow found himself volunteering to co-drive Sagoo who is a Safari novice. Jurgen originally worked with Audi in the Quattro years and was largely responsible for the homologation of the various breeds of Group 4 and Group B Quattro. But those cars are, for the moment, too young to be admitted to the Safari Classic. He will have to wait an absolute minimum of another ten years for the cut-off date to float upwards sufficiently to embrace such Audis. At the time of sending this release the cars are currently driving over the ramp for the ceremonial start under the tusks in Moi Avenue in Mombasa. Eight days of hard rallying lie ahead of them but it's clear that everyone is up for the challenge.

Rally route

True Veterans Seen recently on the Tanzanite One Arusha Rally was the Datsun 260Z of Jayant Shah and Lofty Drews who were using it as an opportunity to try out the car prior to their participation in the Kenya Airways Safari Classic Rally in November. If Safari experience is a pre-requisite for success, these two gentlemen have it in large quantities. Between them they have done the original Safari Rally no less than thirty-six times, on four occasions together. Throughout his rally career, Jayant Shah has remained faithful to Datsun. His first appearance on a Safari was in 1973 in a Datsun 1600SSS but it was not until 1978 at the wheel of a Datsun 160J that he finally got himself on the scoreboard with a ninth place overall. The following year he was twelfth, then eighth, then fifth and finally in 1983 driving one of the new Nissan 240RS he took his best result with a fourth place. He remained with a 240RS until Group B was cancelled at the end of 1986 by which time he had done the Acropolis Rally twice, finishing just out of the top ten on both occasions, and taken seventh place on the Argentina Rally. He then used a Nissan 200SX for three Safari rallies, two of them with Lofty, before dropping out of major rallying after retiring on the 1990 Safari. Lofty Drews' rally career stretches back even further. He did his first Safari with Tony Fall in 1968 with a BMC 1800 prepared at the factory but entered by the local dealer, Benbros. When Fall moved to drive Lancia, Lofty followed and finished fifteenth with Fall in 1969 in a Lancia Fulvia that got there largely thanks to the mechanical ingenuity and endurance of its crew. In 1970, Lofty was promoted to accompany Sandro Munari and oversaw the preparation of the Fulvias at his own house outside Nairobi. They were leading when they crashed on the last night while a broken drive shaft robbed them of any chance the following year. With no Lancias in 1972, Lofty drove with Brian Culcheth in a works Triumph 2.5PI and finished thirteenth. In 1973, he accepted an offer from Shekhar Mehta and won outright with a Datsun 240Z. After that it was back for two years with Munari, taking third in a Fulvia in 1974 and second with a Stratos in 1975. Rauno Aaltonen then took him on-board at Datsun for a six year period during which they finished second on the Safari three times before moving together to Opel for two near misses at winning with an Ascona 400 and then a second and fourth place with its successor, the Manta 400. A couple of rallies followed with Jayant Shah, including the trip to Argentina, and then two more rides for Opel in their front wheel drive Kadett which yielded a ninth place in 1987. At that point, the Drews family moved to their present base in Queensland, Australia. With the inauguration of the Kenya Airways Safari Classic in 2003, Lofty has found an excuse to return to East Africa - he was born in Tanzania - to renew his acquaintance with "proper rallying". The Shah family is well represented on the Kenya Airways Safari Classic as, in addition to Jayant and Lofty in their 260Z, Jayant's daughter, Prina, and son-in-law, Ekya, are also competing. Interestingly, their chosen mount is not a Datsun - or a Lancia or an Opel - but a Colt Lancer GSR with a history of its own. It is the very car that Davinder Singh, Joginder's brother, drove on the Safari of 1974. That was the year that Joginder took Mitsubishi's

AMERICAN ODYSSEY Some people's itinerary to get to the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally looks to be almost as arduous as the rally itself. Tim Mammen, who was born in Kenya but currently lives and works in the USA, has set out from Boston to London last night and, all being well, should be on a direct flight to Nairobi today. There he will meet up with his Datsun 1600SSS and co-driver, Kishen Bhanderi and they will then drive down to the start in Mombasa, a distance of some 540 km (340 miles). The Datsun is the same model that finished first and second on the 1970 East African Safari with Edgar Herrmann and Joginder Singh. Tim has driven both the last two Clasic Safaris in this car. In 2003, he finished thirteenth overall and won his class, but in 2005 the car gave a lot of problems and he was lucky to finish. On those two occasions, his co-driver was Jaspal Matharu and the team manager was Kishen Bhanderi, but for 2007 they have swapped roles. The Datsun has been subjected to a major re-build and its engine has been prepared in Australia by Stewart Wilkins so that part of the car will have travelled even further than its driver before starting the rally. It is to be hoped that both engine and crew travel the whole length of the rally and return to Mombasa on December 3rd having experienced no more than the usual hardships of an East African Safari Classic.

But they have to take it up against the Escorts!!! An armada of them…….:nervous: The Mk 1 being driven by Bjorn Waldegard. It costs > £100K.The engine puts out 252bhp. Weights about 800KG. Has Focus WRC suspension legs. The list is endless Anyone get the feeling that FORD really want to get the crown from the Datsun’s

No Driver Co Driver Car Nationality 1 Bjorn Waldegard Mathias Waldegard Ford Escort Mk1 S / S 2 Gerard Marcy Alain Lopes Porsche 911 B / B 3 Stig Blomqvist Ana Goni Ford Escort Mk1 S / YV 4 Frederic Dor Didier Breton Porsche 911 F / F 5 Ian Duncan Amaar Slatch Ford Mustang EAK / EAK 6 John Lloyd Adrian Cavenagh Datsun 240Z GB / EAK 7 Keith Callinan Mary Anne Callinan Ford Escort Mk1 AUS / AUS 8 Steven Perez Michael Stuart Datsun 260Z GB / GB 9 Ian Freestone Rod Maclean Ford Escort RS2000 GB / GB 10 Geoff Fielding Preston Ayres Porsche 911 GB / GB 11 Graham Alexander Ross Runnels Datsun 260Z AUS / AUS 12 Bo Axelsson Eugen Damstedt Ford Escort Mk1 S / SF 14 Alex Hack David Lawrence Brown Ford Escort Mk1 P / EAK 15 Richard Martin-Hurst Tony Devantier Ford Capri Perana GB / NZ 16 Stephen Troman Martin Rowe Porsche 911 GB / GB 17 Marzio Kravos Renzo Bernardi Mercedes 450SLC EAK / EAK 18 Jayant Shah Lofty Drews Datsun 260Z EAT / AUS 19 Paul Kane Mary Ellen Kane Ford Mustang GT350H GB / GB 20 Paul Eric-Jarry Craig Redelinghuys Porsche 911 CZ / ZA 21 Jonathan Savage QuentIn Savage Datsun 260Z EAK / EAK 22 Albert Michiels Patrick DeConinck Porsche 911 B / B 23 Paul Darrouzet Jim Hurman Ford Capri Perana AUS / GB 24 David Kedward Crispine Sasson Ford Escort Mk1 GB / EAK 25 John Rose Michael Borrisow Datsun 240Z EAK / EAK 26 Joseph Pointinger Wolfgang Nolscher Ford Escort Mk1 A / A 27 Stefano Rocca Piers Daykin Datsun 260Z EAK / EAK 28 Gunther Kronseder Gerd Petzold Mercedes 450SLC D/D 29 Aslam Khan Imran Khan Ford Escort Mk1 EAK / EAK 30 Hardev Singh Sira Uwe Kurzenberger Peugeot 504 CoupeV6 GB / D 31 Imi Dewji Gabriele Mahler Datsun 240Z GB / GB 32 Larry Horn Robert Barbour Datsun 260Z EAT / EAT 33 Roddy Sachs Peter Young Datsun 180B G / EAK 34 Ian Swan Val Swan Volvo 242DL AUS / AUS 35 Thomas Flohr Peter Glover Peugeot 504 TI CH / EAK 36 Shahid Wissanji Mir Muzzamil BMW 2002 EAK / EAK 37 David Rayner Sarah Rayner Ford Capri 2.6 GB / GB 38 Grant Stephenson Roger Sylvester Mercedes 230 EAK / EAK 39 Rommy Bamrah Harvey Jutley Datsun 240Z EAK / EAK 40 Ben Muchemi George Njoroge Alfa Romeo Alfetta EAK / EAK 41 Kurt Vanderspinnen Erwin Berkhof Volvo 142S B / NL 42 Bert Dolk Peter van Egmond Volvo 122S NL / NL 43 Tim Mammen Kishen Bhanderi Datsun 1600SSS USA / EAK 44 Neil McGrigor Charles Nicholson Ford Escort Mexico GB / GB 45 Geoff Bell Steve Harris Datsun 180B ZA / ZA 46 Minesh Rathod Sachin Sumaria Colt Lancer GSR EAK / EAK 47 Peter Harland Marcus Harland Datsun 260Z GB / GB 48 Ekya Shah Prina Shah Colt Lancer GSR EAK / EAK 49 Jeremy Bennett Tim Chesser Ford Escort Mexico GB / GB 50 Nick Mason Adrian Grinsted Datsun 260Z GB / GB 51 Peter Stoehr Joseph Jusic Datsun 1600SSS D / D 52 Iqbal Sagoo Jurgen Bertl Porsche 911 USA / D 53 Wayne Kieswetter Rob Hellier Datsun 180B ZA / EAK 54 Quentin Mitchell Russel Savage Triumph GT6 Mk2 EAK / EAK 55 Jeff Amin TBA Datsun 260Z USA / TBA 56 Rob Garnsworthy David Ogg Ford Falcon Fairmont AUS / AUS 57 Harvinder Dhanjal Harpal Sudle Datsun 240Z EAK / GB 58 Michel Puchercos Constant Vanaerschot Datsun 180B F / F 59 Robert Kaugi Willy Mburu Toyota Corolla EAK / EAK

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING For the statistically minded amongst you, here are some pertinent facts about the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic. Status : FIA International Rally Start : Mombasa, Kenya Route : total length 4.369 km (2,730 miles) Competitive sections, 24 in all, total length : 1,457 km (910 miles) Shortest competitive section is at Athi River outside Nairobi - length = 12.30 km (7.7 miles) Longest competitive section is in Tanzania round Lake Manyara - length = 154.80 km (96.8 miles) Servicing : allowed at various places between some competitive sections plus two hours at every night halt Timetable : Documentation & scrutineering from Nov 22nd to midday Nov 24th Ceremonial start : Moi Avenue, Mombasa on Nov 24th at 16:00 Start of rally from Sarova Whitesands, Mombasa on Nov 25th at 06:00 Night halt Nov 25th at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi Re-start from Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi on Nov 26th at 05:30 Night halt for Nov 26th and 27th at Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge, Naivasha Re-start from Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge on Nov 27th at 06:00 Re-start from Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge on Nov 28th at 06:00 Night halt for Nov 28th and 29th at Ol Tukai Lodge, Amboseli Reserve Thursday, November 29th is a rest day in Amboseli Re-start from Ol Tukai Lodge, Amboseli Reserve on Nov 30th at 07:00 Night halt for Nov 30th at Sarova Taita Hills Game Lodge, Tsavo Re-start from Sarova Taita Hills Game Lodge, Tsavo on Dec 1st at 07:00 Night halt for Dec 1st and 2nd at Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge, Arusha Re-start from Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge, Arusha on Dec 2nd at 07:00 Re-start from Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge, Arusha on Dec 3rd at 05:30 Finish at Sarova Whitesands, Mombasa on Dec 3rd at approx 15:00 Prizegiving at Sarova Whitesands, Mombasa on Dec 4th at 11:00 Eligible cars : All types of passenger cars of a type built before December 31st, 1974. No vehicle with more than six seats allowed. Also forbidden are commercial vehicles, SUVs, any 4WD vehicle or any vehicle having either turbocharging or supercharging. Number of crews competing : 58 Cars entered : Datsun 240Z & 260Z 14 Ford Escort 11 Porsche 911 7 Datsun 180B 4 Ford Mustang 3 Ford Capri 3 Volvo 122 & 142 & 242 3 Datsun 1600SSS 2 Colt Lancer 2 Peugeot 504 2 Mercedes 450SL 2 Mercedes 230 1 Ford Falcon 1 BMW 2002 1 Toyota Corolla 1 Alfa Romeo 1 Triumph GT6 1 Crews : 18 countries are represented and 4 continents. There are 15 East African crews and in addition 8 crews of which one member is from East Africa. There are 5 husband and wife crews and at least 2 father and son crews. The countries from which the members of the crews come are :- Sweden New Zealand Switzerland Belgium Tanzania Venezuela Czech Republic France South Africa Kenya Austria Britain Germany Australia Holland Finland USA Portugal

East African Safari Classic Rally 25th November - 3rd December 2007 LAST MINUTE ACTIVITY It would appear that no matter how experienced you may be, even to the point of having been crowned World Rally Champion, a bit of match practice is deemed handy before a major event. This was never truer than for the Kenya Airways East African Safari Rally 2007. Both Bjorn Waldegård and Stig Blomqvist, entered on this year's Safari in Historic Motorsport Ford Escort RS 1600s, have taken every opportunity to drive similar cars in the last months before the Safari kicks off in Mombasa on November 25th. The most recent appearance by Blomqvist was with his Safari co-driver, Ana Goni, on the Costa Brava Rally. Entered by David Sutton in the historic section in an Escort RS1800, they took a clear victory in their category, a feat that they will be hoping to repeat when they come to East Africa in a couple of weeks time. Also running on the event was Waldegård, renewing his acquaintance with Escorts thanks to a Group 2 Escort provided by ASM Motorsport. On the same rally, Mark Solloway of Historic Rallysport ran an Escort RS1600 for one of his clients, Dewi Bowen, which was fitted with a new type of differential. So successful was the test - Bowen led Blomqvist after three stages only to lose time when his throttle spring broke - that Mark has acquired a lot more and will be taking them down to Mombasa to change them on the three Escorts that he is running on the Safari. His Australian crew, Keith and Mary-Ann Callinan are arriving in Kenya next week to get used to the climate and go on another kind of Safari before the motoring one starts. Alex Hack is flying down to Nairobi to meet his local co-driver, David Lawrence-Brown, and then they will drive the five hundred miles down to Mombasa so that crew and car can get fully used to one another. The Costa Brava was a tarmac event and if there is one thing that is well known about the Kenya Airways East African Safari Rally 2007, it is that there is very little competitive motoring on tarmac - or anything resembling it. All the serious competition takes place on dirt, mud, sand and rock in various combinations, sometimes all together. Thus Geoff Fielding and Preston Ayres were probably a bit closer to getting match practice when they tackled the Bulldog Rally in mid Wales a couple of weeks ago in their Tuthill prepared Porsche 911. This was an event held on un-surfaced forest tracks and thus much more like some of the Safari route. As this was their actual rally car, they were content to ensure that it went reliably and did not need any bodywork repairs before Kenya Airways flies it down to Nairobi early next week. Most of the crews are planning on being there early enough to drive their cars in Safari conditions by way of a shake down before the event. Some, like the Historic Rallysport entries, will want to see how their new bits of technology work. Also amongst that group is David Rayner, doing the rally with wife Sarah in a Ford Capri 2.6. They used the Capri on the Carrera Americana last year and it rather disappointed them by refusing to leave Argentina after a big end bearing failed. That has been fixed and the Capri has also benefited from being fitted with Proflex suspension units - "the same as Blomqvist used last year" - which the Rayners have yet to try in African conditions. With the majority of the overseas cars now arriving daily in the port of Mombasa and the rally officials working flat out to get them and their spares all cleared of customs, the old feelings of Safari Fever are returning to Kenya. The Kenya Airways East African Safari Rally is beginning to take on the mantle of the old Safaris of the 1970s and 1980s. With fifty-nine entries, lots of well known and prestige names behind the wheel, and many of them supported by full service crews, the event is growing ever greater in status. As Richard Tuthill, a man who has no less than six Porsches to look after said "Our service effort this year supersedes anything done before by anyone on the Safari Classic rally. Lets hope it works as we have planned !" And so say all of us ...