Safari day9 - Duncan-Waldegaard battle

This penultimate day again had two major news. Ian Duncan/Ford Mustang and Björn Waldegaard/Porsche 911 shared the stage wins today and this carried on to be a ding-dong battle as it was all event. The win should definitely be between one of them, but then you are soon to learn that Duncan actually had problems, which he has to fix for good before the last day. After the penultimate day Duncan and Waldegaard are seperated by 7 minutes with 3^rd placed Steve Perez/Datsun 260Z nearly an hour down on Duncan. However the Safari is never over until the finish ramp. This scenario we have now i.e. reminds me of Opel’s great victory in the Safari 1985. What you say? Opel never won the Safari 1985? You are right, but they had an absolutely stunning event with Rauno Aaltonen (co-driven by Lofty Drews, who competes here in 2009 alongside Jayant Shah) and German newcomer Erwin Weber in a pair of Opel Manta 400. They led another newcomer, Juha Kankkunen in the Toyota Celica (RA63) TCT by about an hour, Opel victory virtually guaranteed, when on the last day on both cars a tiny nut came lose in the air filter box and was sucked up by the engine! Tiny part worth a few pennies cost Opel a sensational 1-2 on the last day. Maybe it was justice, as when Ari Vatanen had his famous Safari 1983 victory in the Rothmans Opel Ascona 400, this victory only came when Timo Salonen’s Nissan Silvia 240RS engine blew up from a huge lead with only a few kms from the finish ramp.

   

Though maybe the bigger news is a sad example how cruel rallying can be. Every day we celebrated daily Geoff Bell’s heroics in the little Datsun 180B, being in the top5 virtually all event. Well, following a hefty 2^nd section crash today, this fine result is now out the window.

   

CS20 – Suswa – 70.3km

   

Another casualty seems Marzio Kravos in the unique Mercedes 450SLC. After a troublesome day in the Rift Valley and a lot of repairs needed on the last service of day8, the team turned off into Nairobi following a driveshaft failure in this first stage. The Jean-Louis Juchault Peugeot 504 Coupé at least seems on the way to Taita Hills for the last sections after its hefty crash in Rift Valley, but for the Mercedes it looks like (an uncofirmed) retirement right now.

   

Waldegaard was not really having an explanation other than “there was one chap in front of us who was not lifting off at all in that first section” as he lost around a minute to Ian Duncan.

   

This Suswa stage started in Rift Valley, but climbed up to the stage along the West of Nairobi and ended in Ngong, just on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital.

   

CS21 – Emali – 114.4km

   

Another such huge stage. This stage was South-East of Nairobi, actually already some way along the Nairobi-Mombasa A109 highway. It is a savannah stage comparable to the Il Bissel stages.

   

And it was here that Geoff Bell in the Datsun 180B lost his top5 result for good: "We hit a big jump in the second section which threw us off course and into some trees. There was not a lot I could do bout it and I knew we would collect one of them. Fortunately, it was not the biggest one and came off worse than us. But we had done a lot of damage round the front and needed to do something about it if we were to carry on. We got the Datsun in a tug-of-war between a sand truck and a big tree and pulled out quite a lot of the damage to the front. Then we bought a stick from a chap for 500 shillings (Note: about 5 Euros!) to wedge between the bulkhead and the radiator. As we didn't use all of the stick we tried to get him to pay back 150 shillings for what we didn't use, but he wasn't having that. So we got out of the section, did some fettling with the service and then on the last section we managed to catch and pass someone ! And they tell us we are still in the top ten."

   

Björn Waldegaard won this stage taking time back again from Duncan, but the gap in this 114km stage was only 25secs! Duncan such had a fairly clean run in this stage, but his dramas started immediately after. In fact how lucky this problem did not occur on a stage: "Yes, we had a few problems but nothing cost us very much in terms of time. There is a pipe to the power steering pump that is leaking a bit but we can fix that. And the distributor drive failure happened in a really fortunate place - away from the competitive sections.” But his luck was as this fault caused the car to break down completely, but it all happened on the transport section between Email and Ndi, not any actual stage.

   

CS22 – Ndi – 50.5km

   

Three stages, three different characters. This stage led us straight into the Taita Hills again, though not the most typical Taita Hills stage. Basically Taita Hills is again a night stop before the last day’s action.

   

And here the next news. Both Renault Alpine A110 seemed to have a trouble free day. Firmenich indeed had, proving the light, flat car can cope with Safari. Eric Comas in the always troublesome car had a fine first two stages, but he is reported as being towed out of CS22 as I am writing this. Currently F1 driver Comas is listed 38^th and last.

   

The stage was won by Ian Duncan, but again the gap between him and Björn Waldegaard was only a few secs.

   

More general...

   

Remember after day7 UK’s Steve Troman was 7^th, but less than 2 minutes between his 7^th and 9^th place. As it turned out today Troman was passed, not helped by two punctures near the end of stages. Troman is still listed 7^th, but this now is the wrong end of this trio, it only isn’t 8^th because of Bell’s crash. "It is puncture day. We had three punctures. One in the first section and two in the second section. The third section was lovely - really nice."

   

Quite funny (and showing that stages are secret and the organisers provide the pace notes) the whole day story of Stefano Rocca: "We caught someone within the first seventeen kilometres of the start of the first section and, as there was no possibility to pass, we just cruised and enjoyed a cigarette. Then on the second one, we decided to test suspension settings and stopped a few times for Piers to click them up and down. And then we were going well on the third section when the road book says 'medium left over jump'. For me, a 'medium' is pretty quick bend so we took off and went straight over a ditch. What can I say ? But we didn't lose much and we are still here." Fellow 260Z crew Jayant Shah meanwhile gave us calculations that went for them like that all rally: 3 stages, 3 punctures!

   

Hardev Singh Sira and Denis Giraudet had a much better day in their Ford Escort after the traumas of yesterday. "Everything was fine today and we got the car fixed up yesterday." Shame they had so far a seemingly quiet rally with few events, as I was waiting all the time for an opportuntiy to tell that Denis Giraudet is yet another WRC star navigator who enjoys this Safari rally!

   

Frederic Daunat and Guy Chriqui had a trouble free day in their Citroen DS21. "All went well today and the competitive sections were super. It seems now we are near the end everything is good with the car. Perhaps in two years time for the next East African Safari Classic it will be perfect!"

   

Also the Porsche 924 of the Bussolini’s runs perfect, the team however got a time penalty for arriving at the day’s 1^st CS late after wrong plotting on the road section.

   

Yet another unique car and entry is the Colt Lancer of the full ladies team Ekya & Zahir Shah. "We had a lot of problems yesterday. First thing we had a problem with the accelerator linkage and then in the first section the leaf spring U-bolt failed and because of the vibration the brake pipe broke. On top of that the gearbox mounting came loose. But today was much better. We had another problem with the accelerator linkage but we've done all three sections. In fact we've completed all the sections so far in the rally. However it'll be a while before we're setting fastest times."

 

Finally well funny Thomas Flohr (5th now, Porsche 911) comments. Well fitting to end this story for today. Remember his comments yesterday (see article day8), after day9 Thomas said: "A pretty good day if a bit hot. No punctures, no camels, no trees - so straight to the bar!"

   

Tomorrow’s challenge and route:

   

Very exciting final day. The first stage is a proper Taita Hills one, but leading South-East to the Nairobi-Mombasa main road. It is actually CS3 reverse, the stage that led us from Mombasa into the Taitas on the first proper day of rallying. However in the middle CS23 takes a diversion and such is longer and faster than the earlier version. This then is followed by 2 stages in the delta South of Mombasa, the last one ending on the outskirts of the finishing city.

   

This could be real sting in the tail stages, and see the article above. Basically 7 minutes is nothing, at the moment victory is between Duncan and Waldegaard, but remember the Opel stories above.

   

Results after Day9:
1^st – Ian Duncan EAK/Amaar Slatch EAK,   Ford Mustang,   16h33m21s

2^nd – Björn Waldegaard S/Iqbal Sagoo USA,   Porsche 911,   +7m32s

3^rd – Steve Perez GB/Staffan Parmander S,   Datsun 260Z,   +58m23s

4^th – Gerard Marcy B/Stéphane Prevot B,   Porsche 911,   +1h26m31s

5^th – Thomas Flohr CH/Didier Breton F,   Porsche 911,   +2h08m15s

6^th – Graham Alexander AUS/Ross Runnalls AUS,   Datsun 260Z,   +2h39m47s

7^th – Steve Troman Gb/Calvin Cooledge GB,   Porsche 911,   +2h55m07s

8^th – Jean-Pierre Mondron B/Dan Erculisse B,   Porsche 911,   +2h57m49s

9^th – Paul-Eric Jarry F/Jean-Francois Andreoil F,   Porsche 911,   +3h04m43s

10^th – Geoff Bell ZA/Tim Challen EAK,   Datsun 180B,   +3h24m47s