EA Classic Safari Rally: Tough terrain major test for competing crews

The East Africa Classic Safari Rally has lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest motorsports competitions, with many crews encountering technical challenges in the early stages of the competition.

On Tuesday, the Porsche 911 car of Roger Smaulelsson and Julia Swenson flipped in Irimeto Stage, but the crew overcome the temporary setback to continue with the rally.

The car rolled a couple of times before it was pushed back onto the road. The crew  survived the incident unscathed, but the car damaged its panels.

 At the same time, navigator Josh McErlean who was co-driving John Coyne in a Porsche 911 car (No28) was forced to retire from the rally with a medical problem. He developed an ear problem and was replaced by Eoin Treacy according to the rules. Few other incidents were reported but luckily no injuries or retirements were reported.

 A smashed windscreen almost put Aslam Khan and his brother Arshard in problems. A stone appeared from nowhere before and  smashed the windscreen of their Porsche 911 car in the Elenkay/Isinti section on Monday.

 “A stone smashed my side of the windscreen but we survived unscathed. We don’t know where it exactly came from but it was a bull’s eye aim. It smashed the windscreen, right in my line of sight,” Aslam told Nation Sport.

Separately,  Aslam’s nephew, Farhaaz Khan also suffered mechanical problems on Day One, his Porsche 911 car breaking its rear differential.
 Farhaaz’s navigator, Keith Henrie, spoke about the incident.

“We broke the rear diff of our car in the first stage on Monday. It cost an extra penalty after we visited the Service Park outside our schedule. It has since gone well. This is my fourth event as a navigator, although I have serviced several other drivers in the past,”  Henrie told Nation Sport.

Former Safari Rally winner, Glen Edmunds, also talked of challenges he experienced in the last two days of competition.

“The rally experience proved rough for us, with many steering problems. We were forced to replace three of our suspensions on our Skoda car. The car is well prepared but it has some issues that need to be sorted out,” Edmunds told Nation Sport.

Edmunds added: “Some stages proved too rough to tackle, but the competition has been good so far. We will keep going.”
 
Provisional leaders end of Day Three:

1.  Eugenia Amos/Paolo Ceci (Porsche 911) 377mins:55.2secs

2.  Geoff Bell/Tim Challen (Datsun 240Z) 381:08.

3.  Baldev Chager/Gareth Dawe (Porsche 911) 390:42.1

4.  Emile Breittmayer/Alexis Thomas (Porsche 911) 398:35.4

5.  Bonamy Grimes/Martin Rowe (Porsche 911) 272:13.7

6. Phillip Kadoorie/Ryan Champion (Porsche 911) 408:28.2

7. Kris Rosenberger/Nicola Bleicher (Porsche 911) 4O9: 39.9

8. Tony Wright/Douglas Rundgren (Ford Escort MK2) 426:10

9. Ian Duncan/ Jaspal Matharu (Datsun 280Z) 427:3.3

10. John Coyne/Josh McErlean (Porsche 911) 506:0.7