Tough times for Stig as Classic Rally takes a break: Day 6 of the Classic Rally will be starting tomorrow

Rally Tejvir Rai's Kabras Porsche 911 blows dust around the Taita/Taveta area.

The Swedish lost a realistic chance of defending his title after gearbox problems.

Tough times lie ahead for defending champion Stig Blomqvist of Sweden as the Kenya Airways East African Classic Rally enters its fifth day today - when drivers take a rest before resuming the grueling competition in Mombasa. 

The Swedish lost a realistic chance of defending his title after his car developed gearbox problems.

"We had gearbox problems which interfered with the last section. It has affected our lead but I know our team is working hard to get the problems sorted and the plan for now is just to get going," said Stig.

Kenya's experienced driver Ian Duncan, who is a two times winner, has been affected by the initial six-hour penalty and this has since thrown his third victory aspirations into limbo. Duncan suffered engine problems on the first day and lost a meaningful chance of chasing the leaders.

Carl Tundo and his compatriot Baldev Chager were literally flying taking full advantage of the situation. 

Tundo's navigator Tim Jessop sounded quite enthusiast of the podium battle.

"Last stage was interesting, 21km in eight minutes, so you can imagine the speeds topping with elephants around. That was a bit dangerous. The stage before was fine, a lot of rain hindering visibility with a fairly straight forward second stage, now looking forward to head down to the South Coast," said Jessop. 

Chager said he was settling in well and enjoying the rally and doing it how it should be done. "We have managed to take advantage of the challenges other drivers are facing buts this is a very close."

Briton Richard Jackson had an interesting first two days. "Today has been really good for us although we had a puncture on the first stage so we had to run on the rim for a while and lost about three minutes but we caught up again. It has been a mixture of various issues but as you know, every day is a new day in rally," said Jackson. 

South African oldie Geoff Bell said: "This very last stage finish was incredible, it was 7km with your foot absolutely flat as hard as you can go. And you don’t lift it all the way to the finish. In the rally when you have such moments it just works so beautifully and you get to understand why you come back," said Bell. 

Frank Tundo of Kenya was all smiles. "First stage was really nice then it rained then my wipers stopped working but it was all good. The last stage was funny, just a straight up the road and down the road,"remarked Frank.