Italy's Amos braves floods, muddy ride to extend lead

Sunday's Leg Eight of the East African Safari Classic Rally, has been cancelled.

Renzo Bernardi, the Clerk of the Course for the major event, issued a Bulletin late Saturday evening to inform drivers of the latest developments. 

‘’Due to unavoidable situations, we have had to cancel Leg Eight but have already replaced it with another three stages. My team is fully prepared. The cause is severe weather conditions,’’ Bernardi told Nation Sport.

Meanwhile, another day of tough competition goes by as the East African Safari Classic Rally is within reach of the finish with just two days remaining.

So far the East African Safari Classic Rally has lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest rallies in the world. Competitors have faced difficulties crossing flash floods and really wet stages. 

Organisers have been forced to cancel several stages due to the poor conditions. 

The organisers had to shorten the last stage (CS18) of Saturday for safety reasons. The stage was shortened from 53.42kms to 28.06kms.

With less than six stages remaining, Italy’s Eugenia Amos and Paolo Ceci maintained their lead of the Classic Rally driving a Porsche 911. The crew has over 10:54 minutes of the lead with six stages remaining.

Clerk of the Course, Renzo Bernardi has been a busy official with cancellation of a few stages due to poor weather and road surfaces.

“Well it is ok and good so far. Though rain has disrupted a few stages especially with flash floods and lots of mud in particular stages. Forthcoming challenges will be the rain and mud in several stages. For now it’s going well,” Bernardi told Nation Sport.

Event Director Raju Chagger has faced few challenges but has been able to make changes as required.

“It has been hectic and very challenging at times. Rains and flash flooding have caused major issues but the team is working well to resolve the challenges. Hopping for the next two days to run smoothly if it does not rain,” Chagger told Nation Sport.

The crews in the East African Safari Classic Rally have so far tackled 18 of the original 24 Competitive Stages. Three of the stages were cancelled due to poor weather.

Two days, each with three Competitive Stages are now remaining before the Classic Rally ends on Monday.

Former Safari Rally navigator-now- turned-driver Piers Daykin is doing well so far.

Daykin navigated Lee Rose to several Kenya National Rally Championship titles at the height of his navigational career. Daykin is navigated by Tariq Malik at the wheels of a Datsun 280Z in the current Classic Rally.

Farhaz Khan and Keith Henrie in a Porsche 911 had planned to go steadily in Leg Six not knowing they were to get stuck in one of the mud holes.

“We paced ourselves through the first section as it was rough. In the second section we pushed hard but got stuck in a mud hole and lost over four minutes but I came to find out later that the majority of the cars also got stuck thus we did not feel too bad,” Henrie told Nation Sport.

Aslam Khan said he was happy to be back on the road after the Service Crew members replaced the engine of the Porsche 911. He said he was looking for a finish now after being penalised six hours for changing the engine.

Rajesh Maini and Devon Bhundia will rejoin the rally on Sunday after missing out of action on Saturday. Their Ford Escort broke steering arm in the last stage of Saturday.

“We broke our steering arm bolts and went off unfortunately. All is ok but we will restart today hopefully after repairs,” said Maini. 

In the Classic Event, the crew is allowed to rejoin the event later. A crew failing to finish a stage faces a penalty of ideal time as per Itinerary plus 75% of the ideal time which will be the maximum penalty for any competitor.

Each of the crews is allowed two hours Service Time at the end of the Day’s contest. 

As per the rules, no four-wheel drive, turbochargers, and superchargers are allowed in the East African Safari Classic Rally. All those cars allowed, are pre-1985 manufactured, two-wheel drive with normally aspirated engine.

Every crew has to be insured compressively while the rally car has to have a third party insurance cover.

The East African Safari Classic Rally is sponsored by Nest Seekers International, White Cap, Vikingo Ridge, Isuzu, Safaricom, Aquamist, USN, Chyulu Hills Redd Carbon Project, Carnivore, Sopa Lodges and Standard Group.

The remaining programme:

Day 8 - 17 December - Amboseli to Voi - Rest at Voi Wildlife Lodge;

Day 9 - 18 December - Voi to Okundi - Rest at Diamonds Leisure Lodge and Golf Resort and finally the end.

Provisional Top 11 positions at end of Leg Seven

1. Eugenia Amos/Paolo Ceci (Porsche 911)

2. Baldev Chager/Gareth Dawe (Porsche 911)

3. Emile Breittmayer/Alexis Thomas (Porsche 911)

4. Kris Rosenberger/Nicola Bleicher (Porsche 911)

5. Bonamy Grimes/Martin Rowe (Porsche 911)

6. Phillip Kadoorie/Ryan Champion (Porsche 911)

7. Journal Serderidis/Grégoire Munster (Porsche 911)

8. Andrew Siddal/Gary McElhinney (Datsun 240Z)

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

10. Michael Holmqvist/Emil Axelsson (Porsche 911)

11. Piers Daykin/Tariq Malik (Datsun 280Z).