Imian Mogul navigated by Adrian Din almost overturns at the Batian spectator stage in Nanyuki during day two of the 62 KCB Safari Rally, yesterday. [PHOTO MOSE SAMMY/STANDARD]

Defending KNRC Champion Baldev Chager maintained his campaign in search of a second straight KCB Safari Rally title when he led leg 1 B from start to finish.

Chager, who set the quickest times in all the three stages run on Friday's Day 1, drove cautiously in the first two stages and had his Day 2 campaign gifted by Tundo's puncture in the long 53km stage at Loldaiga.

The Flying Singh was all smiles at Sportsman's Arms where cars proceeded for the overnight parc ferme.

"Yesterday (Friday) was actually a good day, the stages were nice. Today (yesterday), Turaco stage was very tricky and I drove a bit cautiously – so Tundo beat us on that stage. Considering that I retired at Loldaiga last time, I had to treat this stage with lots of caution. It's a very notorious stage. It doesn't forgive you so we had to be really cautious," said Chager.

Trailing Chager by 2.38 minutes was Tundo whose spirited campaign was frustrated when he had a puncture on the long Loldaiga stage.

Third overall was Manvir Baryan who trailed the leader with 5.01 minutes, followed by Quentin Mitchell in his new Scoda Fabia S2000.

Tundo gave Chager a good chase in the early morning run and had cut Chager's lead to 21 seconds at the 12km Turaco section where he set the quickest time.

But this was short-lived with Chager's puncture.

Ian Duncan was Day 2's first casualty on Turaco stage where his car stalled.

Other notable casualties of the day were Rajbir Rai (gearbox), Issa Amwari (electrical), Farhaaz Khan, Onkar Rai with differential failure and defending Two Wheel Drive champion Dennis Mwenda whose Toyota Sprinter GT suffered overheating problems.

The Two Wheel Drive class has few survivors after Dennis Mwenda and Gurmit Thethy retired.

Thethy retired with a broken wheel hub, while Mwenda, who incidentally is the 2013 2WD Safari winner, kissed the event goodbye with overheating problems.

Mwenda was left to rue what started off on a promising note but ended his Safari aspirations in misery.

"The safari hasn't been very kind on me this time," Mwenda said. "We started off well in Turaco then got into Loldaiga and one kilometre  to the finish, the cars started overheating and it took us so long to get to the next stage at Turaco so we decided to retire."