Safari day3 - Duncan than Waldegaard

First an errata from John Davenport to his mid day report. Thanks John (and maybe you should check up his name in the (co)driver database, a famous navigator of the 1970s, sitting alongside Hannu Mikkola, Simo Lampinen and others in Escorts, Fulvias and more before he became MG Rover team director in the Metro 6R4 groupB days). The error is human since the Escort crew driving straight to Arusha for service and not competing today was not Gianluca Ciaraldi / Uwe Kurzenberger but Giancarlo Ciaraldi / Peter Stone. And indeed the Gianluca/Uwe Escort did start the day with huge suspension troubles already on the road section, but curiously the stages then went alright for them. For Gaincarlo/Peter they broke their gearbox on day2, fitted the spare one only to find out that had a fault with zero mileage and so they headed straight to Arusha to turn one good gearbox out of two broken ones. Interesting mix up as both Ciaraldi’s compete in Escorts, while navigators are icons. Peter Stone competed in basically every Safari Rally since 1993, coming 5^th in the F2 only round in 1995, but then retiring 6 times in a row in groupN Subarus until the Safari stopped being a WRC round in 2002. Since 2003 he was a top10 finisher in classic Safaris alongside Bruce Field in a Porsche 911. Uwe Kurzenberger is a German (owner of the original Safari 1973 Waldegaard works Porsche 911!) who will have to come as a spectator to the next East African Safari in 2011. Not that Uwe’s co-driving skills are in doubt, but this is now the 3^rd time in a row he travelled to Kenya to spectate this event and ended up finding himself strapped to a co-driver’s seat as a last minute step in. So if he wants to spectate this event, maybe 4^th time lucky?

   

I also am guilty of an error for not letting you know in my day2 report that local heroes Stefano Rocca / Piers Daykin / Datsun 260Z incurred huge road penalties for a severely burst suspension. Despite a much better day3 they are still all the way down in 27^th place. Quite a faux pas on my end, since following the prologue results Rocca/Daykin started day2 actually in 2^nd place, ahead of Duncan and Waldegaard!

   

Talking interesting drivers in interesting cars, the saga of the mega experienced Jayant Shah / Lofty Drews Datsun 260Z doesn’t end, 4 more punctures today means they are at least twice as successful in ripping tyres to pieces as any other driver out there! The French saga also goes on. The Citroën DS had an OK day, but the Peugeot 504 Coupé had rear axle problems since the rough second Usambara stage. And over at the Alpines, ex-F1 driver and now Alpine team boss Eric Comas retired with a broken driveshaft on day1, retired with severe suspension problems on day2, then missed all of day3 with gearbox problems and hopes to rejoin the rally for day4. The identical sister car driven by Swizz Charles Firmenich in contrast now ran the 3^rd day in succession absolutely fault free like a Swizz clock!

   

Another unusual car, if you are bored with Porsche 911s, the Porsche 924 of Jean-Marc and Patricia Bussolini has been much better behaved today with only one broken wheel as the total of its problems. Jean-Marc commented on the day3 stages that, "The second section today was just awful, so rough up that hill. It is no pleasure to drive. But the third section that was simply marvellous. High speed drifting, sand, mud, river beds. I loved it."

   

Today the rally crossed borders to Tanzania. But traditionally the Safari enters (leaves) Tanzania north of Mount Kilimanjaro, coming from the Massai Maras and leaves (enters) along the coast going from Tanga to Mombasa. This time the crossing was in between these points and this turned the Usambara Mountains into a return loop rather than a drive through. The Usambaras were once by Michèle Mouton fittingly described as “Tour de Corse on gravel”, only that this is Black Cotton region. As it turned out, the day started dry and it was the last section along Mount Kilimanjaro itself towards Arusha that turned into a wet mud bath with plenty of Black Cotton. Such today’s action unpredictably concentrated on the last section. Although it was interesting that all drivers described the first Usambara stage as wonderful with soft sand and the second Usambara stage as rough.

   

CS5 – Kifaru – 76km

   

Absolutely everybody loved this stage. Not wet enough for Black Cotton, yet not turning at all rough in the dry, just sand and maybe a dust problem and absolutely picturesque. Indeed the only major problem to report on this 76km stage was the Australians Graham Alexander / Ross Runnalls, overnight 4^th in their Datsun 260Z. They were passed on the stage by Gerard Marcy’s Porsche as a result, but overall they only dropped from 4^th to 5^th, as for Marcy....

   

CS6 – Same – 75km

   

....Marcy then broke his suspension in a deep rut in the next stage. Although he told everybody it was an innocent rut and he watched other cars go through it at the same lines and speeds, for Marcy the damage was 40min!

   

The even bigger news was a nightmare for Datsun 180Bs. After day2 we wondered how these rugged, but old and underpowered cars could be that high up that early in the event. One of them maybe you find excuses, but while the much more powerful 2.6 6-cylinder sportscoupés Datsun 260Z struggled, the 1800cc small saloons occupied 6^th, 7^th & 8^th places, which does not look like coincidence.

   

Well, it did not stay that way, as the maybe biggest news of the day was a hefty roll by overnight 8^th placed 180B driver Wayne Kieswetter. They simply were too fast into a concreted dry river crossing, the car was launched into the air and rolled several times. Complaining of pains at his collar bone, Kieswetter was airlifted to hospital, and although meanwhile released from hospital again, Kieswetter is on his return trip home for further examinations and such this car is out for good. Well, the car itself did not exactly look in a fit state either.

   

But for Datsun 180B fans Kieswetter was only the start of the nightmares. Although only 30^th overnight, hardly the Kieswetter crash had sunk in and we learned that his team mates Roddy Sachs / Dennis Matthews had rolled their car not far from the first crash scene! At the moment it looks like they may however continue the rally, but also on the time sheets their damage is huge. Then they were joined by the Savage team 180B of Quinten & Russell Savage, who first had a puncture and then broke their suspension on CS6, dropping them from 7^th to 17^th. The 4^th 180B, team mate to the Kieswetter & Sachs cars, South African Geoff Bell was the luckiest 180B, claiming two punctures in one section, but since the rest of the day was fine, we now only have 1 Datsun 180B in the top10, but that improved into a sensational 4^th place.

   

CS7 – Longido – 61.4km

   

This stage then went along the Kilimanjaro all the way north. Rain started again and now we had real Black Cotton and for everybody but Datsun 180Bs the real dramas only started now.

   

We mentioned Gerard Marcy? The Belgian in his mint green Porsche 911 is a favourite, he led every East African Safari Classic since its introduction in 2003, he came 4^th on the last edition, he has a celebrity co-driver in Stéphane Prevot, he led this 2009 edition after the 1^st stage and for all this he was given entry N° 1 this year for all the right reasons. In day2 he already had a puncture, but in the 2^nd section of day3 he lost 40 minutes with more suspension problems, the repairs were successful but in the 3^rd section today they then had an alternator failure and lost another 50 minutes. That is 1 ½ hours lost in a day’s rallying!

   

Marcy was 3rd before all this drama. And overnight 4^th, the Australian Alexander 260Z, already was passed in the first section of the day. That meant now UK’s Steve Perez with former WRC star navigator Staffan Parmander alongside him, moved up from 5^th to 3^rd. (And that explains why the Bell 180B got from 6^th to 4^th despite its problems) Perez/Parmander were maybe lucky not to lose time as Perez describes: “we ran wide where the mud was and after that for a while we were running parallel to the proper track, just driving through bushes and things."

   

Another favourite 260Z crew Jonathan Savage (dad to 180B brothers Quinten & Russell Savage) and navigator Gavin Laurence describe how tricky the fesh-fesh can be even in dry sections: "We had two punctures in there towards the end and before that, we came into a dry river bed with a lot of sand and something just took the steering out of my hands and we drove up the bank. We were so lucky. A little faster and the car would have rolled onto its side for sure. As it was, the engine stalled, I fired it up took reverse gear and gingerly backed out.”

 

Peter Stoehr and Crispin Sassoon in their little Datsun 1600SSS had a nice run through the first two sections today but found the third a bit more exciting. "We bottomed out in the sand towards the end and had to dig ourselves out which is partly why we look as if we have been through a sandstorm". Kronos Porsche driver Jean-Pierre Mondron in turn even was confused by fog in the early, wetter part along the lower parts of Mount Kilimanjaro! British Porsche driver Steve Troman also collected a puncture in this stage.

   

But even the two leaders did not get away without excitement in this tricky CS7.

   

Björn Waldegaard: "That last section was Safari mud to start with and then that soft sand. We hit something when we were caught in ruts and thought for sure it must be a puncture. And we heard a stone going round in the disc brake but then that sound stopped, there was no puncture and we came through OK. But you should see that wheel. It is going in my private museum!“

   

And stage winner and rally leader Ian Duncan: "When we hit that muddy stretch, almost a river, in the first part of the third section, we were going so sideways that the car was almost broadside on and collecting bushes and things at the side of the road. Branches broke the spotlights that are mounted at the foot of the windscreen. I was surprised that Björn wasn't quicker than us up that hilly bit on the second competitive section. He took so much off us in the Taitas that he would do that."

   

Tomorrow’s challenge and route:

   

And if that Kilimanjaro – Black Cotton – Longido stage was so much drama, here some potentially bad news for the teams: This is one of the very few repeated stages. The betting is the stage is not going to be much smoother on its second running on Thursday (day5) just before leaving Tanzania!

   

But first to day4: This is going to be an exciting section. Start and finish in Arusha city with the snow covered Kilimanjaro in the background, this day goes more inside Tanzania, first heading to the Ngorongoro Crater leading into a loop round Lake Manyara. There is one rather long stage even for Safari standards going anti-clockwise round this large lake. There is no final decision yet if the section that climbs 900metres (3000feet) within 17km is actually going ahead, but with more Black Cotton and several river crossings, you are guaranteed a drama packed and exciting day’s rallying! Just picture this setting, crater, river crossings, round a large lake, up a steep escarpment, this could be a real classic, yet this area was only in the 2007 Safari Classic used for the first time since the 1970s!

 

Results after Day1:
1^st – Ian Duncan EAK/Amaar Slatch EAK,   Ford Mustang,   5h23m12s

2^nd – Björn Waldegaard S/Iqbal Sagoo USA,   Porsche 911,   +2m22s

3^rd – Steve Perez GB/Staffan Parmander S,   Datsun 260Z,   +26m18s

4^th – Geoff Bell ZA/Tim Challen EAK,   Datsun 180B,   +39m34s

5^th – Graham Aleander AUS/Ross Runnalls AUS,   Datsun 260Z,   +41m56s

6^th – Thomas Flohr CH/Didier Breton F,   Porsche 911,   +43m13s

7^th – Paul-Eric Jarry F/Jean-Francois Andreoil F,   Porsche 911,   +43m57s

8^th – Jonathan Savage EAK/Gavin Laurence EAK,   Datsun 260Z,   +45m59s

9^th – Jean-Pierre Mondron B/Dan Erculisse B,   Porsche 911,   +52m40s

10^th – Steve Troman GB/Calvin Cooledge GB,   Porsche 911,   +55m38s