South Africa's Bell takes early lead at EA Classic Rally

The Datsun 240Z of Geoff Bell of South Africa has taken an early lead in the 2023 East African Safari Classic Rally after escorting fast stage times on the opening day of action.

Bell is navigated by a Kenyan Tim Challen.

Baldev Chager, the defending East African Safari Classic Rally champion, is determined to win the title again after scoring one fastest stage to claim the second overall place in a Porsche 911.

The Porsche driver set the quickest time in SS2 to emerge as the top local driver in the competition.

Chager is a former Safari Rally winner and multiple Kenya National Rally Champion.

Emile Breittmayer of Belgium (Porsche 911) was placed second leading a list of foreign drivers behind him. Porsches have taken seven out of the top 10 places so far.

Former Safari Rally winner, Ian Duncan was the second-placed local driver in 12th place driving Datsun 280Z.

The competition kicked off on Day One with three Competitive Stages. The stages were through CS1 Sokoke/Samburu 120.86km, CS2 Mackinnon/Mwatate 88.94km and CS3 Mariwenyi/Ngutini 32.03km.

Total of 24 Competitive stages will be tackled over the course of the competition, tallying 1634.65 kilometres.

The total distance on the transport sections will be 1371.61kms. The overall distance will be 3006.26kms.

The Škoda Car No 28 of John Coyne and Josh McErlean (Porsche 911) set the fastest time in the opening Spectator Stage of the East African Safari Classic Rally on Saturday.

They were followed in the second position by Car No3 of Kris Rosenberger/Nicola Bleicher (Porsche 911) and Car No36 of Oliver Breittmayer/Eric Forney (Porsche 911) respectively.

The best local crew was Chager and Garth Dawe at eighth in yet another Porsche 911. Ian Duncan and Jaspal Matharu were placed at number 13 in a Datsun 280Z.

Asad Anwar failed to do the opening Spectator Stage due to minor mechanical problems with his Toyota Levine. He was able to rejoin the rally on Day One (Sunday).

“It was very unfortunate not to start the first stage of the Classic Rally. Our car was only able to produce very low power  which was very little compared to other rally cars. My team has worked on the car and is ready for the three stages today,” Anwar told Nation Sport.

Anwar’s son, Hamza Anwar withdrew from the rally at the last minute for personal reasons. He is now managing the dad’s service team.

A crew may not be allowed to start the section if it exceeds any lateness exceeding 30 minutes on any individual target time or an accumulative lateness exceeding 60 minutes at the end of each section.

The same applies if any crew reporting more than 15 minutes late at the start of a section will not be allowed to start the section.

Early Check-in is permitted (S+) 30 minutes for on route service already included in the Target time distance is i, kilometres.

Drivers will start Day Two with three more Competitive Stages of the day to tackle. So far they will have tackled six stages at high speeds.

Monday’s stages will be CS4 Estate Start/Taita Sanctuary (79.22km), CS5 Rombo/Oloitokito (64.05km) and CS6 Elenkay/Isineti (73.56km).

The total Competitive Distance will be 216.83km while the Liaison Distance will be 295.46km. The total distance of the day travelled by the cars will be 512.29kms.

Provisional results - Top-10

1. Geoff Bell/Tim Challen (Datsun 240Z) 149. Of.5

2. Baldev Chager/Gareth Dawe (Porsche 911) 1 50mins:24.9secs

3. Eugenia Amos/Paolo Ceci (Porsche 911) 150:46

4. Bonamy Grimes/Martin Rowe (Porsche 911) 154:17.6

5. Emile Breittmayer/Alexis Thomas (Porsche 911) 154:46.2

6. Journal Serderidis/Grégoire Munster (Porsche 911). 157:46.3

7. Andrew Siddal/Gary McElhinney (Datsun 240Z) 158:11.4

8. Phillip Kadoorie/Ryan Champion (Porsche 911) 159:33.4

9. Glen Janssens/Conrad Janssens(Porsche 911) 166:45.7

10. Mark Bentley/Ed Bentley (Ford Escort MK1) 171.25.7