Safari day2 – 4seconds in 240km!

CS2 – Mnyenzeni – 76.4km

   

CS2 as yesterday’s 20km prologue was counted as day1 and CS1 (CS = Competitive Section, aka SS). Like CS1 this stage started on twisty, sandy roads just outside Mombasa, but then opened up to very fast roads, still on soft sand, going along the main Mombasa to Nairobi highway to finish on Mäkinen Road – err sorry, Mackinnon Road!

   

The fast nature of this stage made it little surprising that the big and powerful Ford Mustang 5.0 V8 was the first stage winner and new leader of the day. The driver is Jan Duncan, the 1994 WRC Safari overall winner, and if he could drive this heavy but powerful car into 4^th place in the super twisty prologue stage, it really is little surprise he could win this near straight 76km CS2 a whole minute faster than everybody else. In fact 2^nd fastest, the Australian pair Graham Alexander / Ross Runnalls were exactly 1min down in their Datsun 260Z.

   

Talking of local drivers and Datsun 260Z drivers, one of the pre event favourites was Kenyan Jonathan Savage in his Datsun 260Z. Instead of pushing forward, his way to lose his top10 place made him the first driver to deliver one of the typical Safari stories, as Jonathan explains: “"We had a puncture on the first section, stopped to change it and an Escort came past. When we got going again, we found that he was stuck in deep sand blocking our way and both of us had to struggle to get out." The Escort driver in question was overnight 8^th Aziz Tajpar, who reconned he lost near 10min in this incident. But see with running order problems in WRC and IRC (seeing also the RAC Rally of Scotland last stage incident), you can never fully avoid such incidents in a fair manner. At least it is not circuit racing, where most of the time drivers are more busy blocking other drivers from overtaking rather than driving to your true speeds. Rallying should provide driving to your full speeds, but here Jonathan Savage and co Gavin Lawrance were stuck behind a car that should not have been in front of them in the first place!

   

Another near traditional story is that the Citroën DS suffered hydropneumatic problems in this first long stage. The DS (and other hydropneumatic cars as the Citroën SM, CX, BX to some degree, but also surprisingly the Austin 1800 “land crab”) always seemed to have the smoothest rides in the roughest conditions, but once they were entered in the Safari the hydropneumatic units failed. This happened twice to the 1972 ex-works DS21 driven by Frédèric Daunat during CS2, but strangely the problem would not repeat on the next even longer sections. Still, this dropped the DS to a disappointing 35^th place after day2.

   

If Ian Duncan’s Ford Mustang could win CS1 so easily, this should have been a good stage for the Mercedes SLCs. Well, it wasn’t, former Kenyan WRC navigator turn driver Marzio Kravos had several small problems slowing his 450SLC all day, while the 350SLC of Jack Nellemann from Denmark and Swiss navigator Joseph Huber became the event’s first full retirement after terminal engine damage.

   

The overnight leader and 1^st on the road today, Gerard Marcy in his mint green Porsche 911, already showed that speed is not everything. Was he too fast or was it being first on the road, either way a puncture cost him 5min on CS2, though he could hit back in winning CS3:

   

CS3 – Mwatate – 113.6km

 

Yes, indeed, one stage of 113km! This stage alone is a whole day’s competition of WRC! And the gaps were not even that huge. It seemed to be a Porsche stage, as Björn Waldegaard was 2^nd fastest to Marcy, yet the lead stayed with Duncan and the Mustang.

   

It is a magic stage. To explain the setting, the main highway from Mombasa to Nairobi, about 1/3^rd along the route comes a town called Voi, to the right is the Tsavo National park, famous for Opel and Toyota works team testing for months for the Safaris of the 1980s, a bit further up is Manyani, where the IRC visited for a long stage in 2007. However turn left in Voi towards the Tanzanian border, you find the Taita Hills. The CS3 actually turned left from the highway earlier and runs along sandy tracks all the way into the Taita Hills, as the roads become ever more grass and fern covered until you actually don’t see any road any more.

   

In this setting, plus at 113km length, this turned out a stage everybody enjoyed and hardly anyone experienced major dramas.

   

However than came another legendary Kenyan team to deliver yet another mystic story that could only happen on the Safari. Talking in other reports several times about the Kenyan team Jayant Shah and ultra successful Lofty Drews. Jayant Shah was a Nissan works driver and finished in the top5 overall on the WRC Safari Rallies 1982 & 1983. On both these occasions Aslam Khan was Shah’s navigator. Khan now tries himself at driving, in a Ford Escort at this occasion. That he is such a successful navigator makes it even less excusable. Aslam Khan and Farhaaz Khan. They had taken a wrong turning on the second section and then tried to find their way back onto the correct route. Unfortunately, they came to it, mistook the direction and started going the wrong way. It was not long before they discovered the error of their ways and went to turn round whereupon the Escort suffered total electrical failure and the engine stopped. Hence they were blocking the section and facing the wrong way! The delays for this team have been so huge as a result that they had to take max time not only on CS3, but CS4 also.

   

CS4 – Bura – 52.3km

   

This is now a proper Taita Hills stage, the whole 50km all in deep ferns, the drivers are driving into a wall of ferns, don’t see the track, and that when deep cliffs are waiting for you! Well, you would probably land softly, but that car surely becomes part of the scenery forever! It is here where the famous McKlein photos were shot, it is here where in 1987 Björn Waldegaard lost his win as his Toyota Supra radiator grill was clogged with grass and ferns.

   

Plenty of dramas also. Local legends as favourites? Just having spoken of Aslam Khan, switch back to his former chauffeur Jayant Shah, now navigated by ultra experienced Lofty Drews in a Datsun 260Z. All the experience and they punctured on the prologue stage already. They suffered another puncture to drop more time in the Taita Hills! And Taita Hills is not a funny place to change tyres.

   

You would think in the high ferns engine cooling is the major problem, while brake cooling is more a problem on short sprint rallies. Well, British Porsche driver Steve Troman found out differently: "We have been going steadily at our own pace and enjoying everything. The only problem we had was that, on the descent from the Taita Hills, we lost the brakes through fading. They went away for about twelve kilometres and that was a bit worrying as the drop off the edge is not small ! The car is going well and we are looking forward to the next eight days of the rally."

   

The Australian Datsun 260Z of Graham Alexander also lost its 3^rd place. Actually this is leading us to more general stories throughout the day. Graham Alexander: “We discovered that we had sheared the engine mounts. The thing is held in at the moment by straps but we hope to improve on that arrangement in the service here. With the Kenyan and Australian 260Z and other cars too in so much dramas, the surprise stage winner in the beautiful and unique Taita Hill stage was the British-Scandinavian Datsun 260Z of Steve Perez and Staffan Parmander!

   

And if the 260Z’s all had problems, the Datsun 180B’s should be well underpowered, but for all that the Safari delivered today, 3 of them are in the top10 now, lined up in positions 6-7-8! The leading 180B is South African team boss and preparer Geoff Bell, even though he claimed: “"I didn't get much sleep last night. There was some guy in the room over me who was evidently doing a 1,000 miles service on his rear axle. But it been OK today apart from a couple of driver 'wrong slots', you know where he says 'turn right' and I go straight on."

   

Andrew Siddall finished 11^th overall on the Roger Albert Clark Rally exactly one week ago (last Monday), driving a true legend: Roger Clark’s 1976 RAC works Escort LAR 800P. He found this rare jewel is probably even more reliable than the specially prepared Safari Datsun 260Z he drives now: "I reckon we had only one good section out of four. Before the rally, we had all kinds of things starting with a leaking cylinder head gasket and then total electrical failure regarding the engine system. We had to change everything including the distributor. And then on the classification section on Sunday, she stuck in second gear for most of the way. On the first section this morning, a Minilite wheel broke and we had to stop and fit a new wheel and tyre. On the second, the fuel pump fuse broke and we had to jury rig a wire from the battery direct to the pump to get going. Finally the last section was OK except that now it seems the intercom is not working properly. We have a lot of work to do here but hopefully tomorrow - and all the other days - will be better."

   

In the remaining competitors it is interesting to note that the Formula1 driver Eric Comas in the Alpine carries on suffering. His car has all the suspension problems, and after taking a max time yesterday, he had to take 2 more max times today and now finds himself 43^rd and last by quite some way. Strangely then that he is team boss and he gave his far better car away. Well, the Alpine of Swiss Charles Firmenich had a largely trouble free day.

   

A paced drive and a trouble free day also had Kronos boss Jean-Pierre Mondron, he posted top10 stage times on every stage and is also 10^th overall after day2. He will be much higher up if he keep going like this. The 2^nd Kronos Porsche of Thierry Bosqueau however had damper troubles. His navigator Nicolas Gilsoul is by the way a former Bruno Thiry codriver. Both being Safari novices, even the problems could not stop them falling in love with this country and summing up the rally rather well (remember the WRC and variety argument?): “It is the first time in Africa for us and it is amazing the variety of these sections - fast, slow, mountain, plain, rough, smooth, sandy, rocky - there is just everything all in one day. And there are more days to come !"

   

Complaining about WRC and lack of variety, the other complaint would be about WRC and short events. Remember the discussions maybe WRC events should be cut to 2 days only, as nothing ever happens on the last day? Well, how about this Safari scenario, summing up the day overall: Going into the day Duncan was 3^rd, Waldegaard 4^th. The fast first stage of 76km Duncan absolutely stormed with his monster Mustang. But in the long 113km stage Waldegaard was 2^nd fastest, just half a minute ahead of Duncan. Come the last Taita Hill stage the Mustang with its huge bonnet is probably not the easiest car to navigate cliffs with the whole track hidden in huge ferns and Waldegaard took exactly a minute out of Duncan. This is in stages culminated 242.4km today and Duncan leads, but only by 4s (four seconds!) from Waldegaard!

   

Tomorrow’s challenge and route:

   

Day3 is by overall mileage the longest day of the entire rally, closely followed by the Rift Valley leg on day8.

   

The 2^nd big news is that the rally is leaving Kenya, going West and crossing the border to Tanzania at the town of Taveta.

   

This is an unusual place for the Safari to cross the border, as in fact the route then turns back South-East again towards Tanga and the coast. However it is never to reach the coast. There are two major loops through the Usambara Mountains, which are located between Mount Kilimanjaro and the Indian Ocean Coast. The Usambaras are nowhere near as big as Mount Kilimanjaro, but they are also real challenging classics. In 2003 Michèle Mouton described these stages as “This is the Tour de Corse on gravel”. Only it is not even gravel. Imagine windy cliff hanger road layouts as Tour de Corse, rain is forecast, we are talking proper black cotton! Black Cotton is, how shall one describe without seeing it, locals call it fesh-fesh when it is dry and dusty, it is vulcanic dark powder soil that when wet turns into deep, gluey mud, providing grip levels that makes driving on sheet ice easy and boring! It was this area and black cotton conditions when twice in the history of the Safari Rally the entire field was reduced to just 7 cars, creating the nick name “The Rally of the magnificent 7”. Curiously it seems this was still skill rather than just luck as both rallies of the magnificent 7 have been won by Nick Nowicky in a Peugeot 404.

   

So the rally crosses borders, takes two different loops through the Usambaras, only to then return back near Taveta, add one of the East African Safari’s most classic black cotton stages right along the hill side of Mount Kilimanjaro and then enter the night halt Arusha from the other side! Now that is a real mammoth day!

   

One short note on day4: This is a rare leg, starting and finishing in Arusha but taking a rarely used loop round Lake Manyara. It is worth noting this now, as the Lake Manyara stage includes an escarpment where the rally cars climb 900metres within 17km. This is fesh-fesh and in the current rain turning into very deep Black Cotton. Right now the organisers are investigating this stage if it even is still passable. Hope it is, we don’t want a destruction derby, but this is Safari, the more spooky adventure the better!

 

Results after Day1:
1^st – Ian Duncan EAK/Amaar Slatch EAK,   Ford Mustang,   2h54m09s

2^nd – Björn Waldegaard S/Iqbal Sagoo USA,   Porsche 911,   +4s

3^rd – Gerard Marcy B/Stéphane Prevot B,   Porsche 911,   +2m26s

4^th – Graham Alexander AUS/Ross Runnalls AUS,   Datsun 260Z,   +7m33s

5^th – Steve Perez GB/Staffan Parmander S,   Datsun 260Z,   +7m51s

6^th – Geoff Bell ZA/Tim Challen EAK,   Datsun 180B,   +10m14s

7^th – Quinten Savage EAK/Russell Savage EAK,   Datsun 180B,   +14m53s

8^th – Wayne Kieswetter ZA/Steve Harris ZA,   Datsun 180B,   +15m52s

9^th – Paul-Eric Jarry F/Jean-Francois Andreoil F,   Porsche 911,   +17m43s

10^th – Jean-Pierre Mondron B/Dan Erculisse B,   Porsche 911,   +17m53s