Khan brothers promise to fight on as Classic Rally gets tougher each day
Sports
By
Ochieng Oyugi
| Feb 13, 2022
The ongoing East African Safari Classic Rally (EASCR) is unforgiving. It is proving tougher and tougher each day.
Boys were being separated from men on Day 3 as drivers combed the rough terrains of Laikipia County yesterday.
Daredevils who had taken early sprints are now realising this is a real marathon! Despite the challenges, some drivers have kept faith.
Among those whose are still holding on despite the mechanical gremlins that have send even polished continental beaters like Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo packing are the Khan brothers.
Aslam (69) and Arshad (65) have battled more than three mechanical failures since the rally was flagged off in Naivasha on Thursday.
Their ALS Motorsport sponsored Porsche 911 came to its knees in the last three days but, with resilience, they have managed to resuscitate it back to life.
“Our spirit lives on, we will not give up,” Arshad told Standard Sports at the Nanyuki Service Park.
“We have been so patient with our baby. We have tediously repaired it and then soldiered on,” he added, while perusing his route book for their next stage.
Aslam and Arshad have been resilient with car, taking even a whole hour to do repairs. They are not perturbed even if other competitors are overlapping them in the journey.
“We had a serious electrical problem in the fifth stage,” Arshad said.
“That is the section bordering Laikipia West and Moguni, so we stopped and fixed the car, it took us over an hour to do that,” says Arshad who is co-driving.
“The opening day was also not smooth for us. We cruised in Stage 1 and Stage 2 before our machine went down in the third, in the section between Nyaru and Kiptagich.
“We were devastated! Instead of retiring, we remembered our mission in the race, to make it to the finish line.”
“So we rolled up our sleeves, got out, panel beat the car and here we are still journeying on.”
Arshad says they are determined to finish their mission which is to make it all the way to Watamu, even if means crossing the finish line with a ‘crawling’ vehicle.
“This is a very long event, we don’t give up, we wont give up. We have to try as much as possible to get the car moving, at all cost.
“In the end, we want to be classified, we want to be ranked, we want to live the true spirit of the rally which is adventure,” he said.
The Khan family has another member, Shakheel, who is also still in contention. Shakeel is making his debut in the world’s toughest rally driving a Ford Escort Mark 1 his target is a top ten finish.
Aslam and Arshad have attended almost all editions of the rally with exception of the 2017 which they missed due to work commitment.
Aslam started rallying at a tender age of 21 and he has managed to bag three Kenya National Rally Championships gong among other trophies.
Aslam is also a former Kenya Motorsports Personality winner. In 2019, Aslam and Arshad finished 11th overall in the Classic rally.
Ahead of this year’s edition, the duo was seeded third alongside indigenous driver Eric Bengi, Mark Bentley and Quentin Mitchell among others.