Tough and long race ahead as Classic Rally enters Day Six: Baldev Chager is leading the pack after four days of gruelling event

Rally 6 Ramesh Vishram codriven by Riyaz Ismail goes through a river crossing during last year's Top Fry Classic Rally

Drivers cross over to Tanzania for the longest stage.

After a deserved day of rest in South Coast, the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally cars cross over into Tanga, Tanzania today for the event’s longest stage.

Kenyan driver Tim Mammen admitted the 155.73km longest section- running all the way from Manguzoni to Horo Horo- would not be for the faint-hearted.

“Today is Tanzania and the only challenge we have is that there is really a very long stage there which will require extra mental and physical stamina. But I think we are in great shape as we haven’t broken anything really,” he said.

Baldev Chager leads the overall standings of the 10-day event that kicked off from Mombasa last Thursday. The rally will end in Mombasa again on Thursday.

With flexible rules governing the Classic, drivers are able to return to action after missing up to four days of the competition with a specified penalty. The event still retains 27 crews, including both local and foreign drivers respectively.

Chager, the former Kenya National Rally Champion, who is aiming to win his first Classic Rally, has a minor lead of nearly two minutes with 12 stages over four more days of the competition remaining.

Mechanical problems

Britons Richard Jackson and Ryann Champion, in a Porsche, are the best-placed foreign drivers in the second place as crew start Day Six action.

Carl Tundo, who led the event briefly before mechanical problems relegated the Top Fry-sponsored Triumph TR7 driver to the third overall place, is hoping to overhaul the eight-minute lead to try and win his first-ever Classic Rally crown in its eighth edition since it was first run in 2005.

Tundo, the Nakuru-based wheat farmer, said he was optimistic of overhauling a eight-minute difference between him and Chager considering the event was still long with lots of stages.

“Stages are good apart from the last one which was a joke. We plan to keep the car together with no more mechanical issues. We are ready to bounce back to the first position,’’ said Tundo.

This is the second year Shell has partnered with the classic rally fraternity to supply fuel for the participants. 

“Every vehicle shall use Shell V-power in this competition and we are extremely excited about this. We wish every driver the very best. Shell V-power is the only high-octane fuel that is retailed in Kenya,’’ said Mark Senteu, the Marketing and Customer Care Manager, Vivo Energy Kenya.

Shell-sponsored Jonathan Somen was also happy with his performance having reported no serious problems with his Ford Escort.

“We are very happy with our performance so far against much more powerful Porsches and other cars. We managed to get through the mud on CS1 on day 1 so that helped us start well. Stages are great though notes for the last section of Day Four,” said Somen.

Ramesh Vishram said he was happy with his car although there were minor mechanical problems along the route of the past four days of action.

“We are currently hovering around the 15th position hoping to slide in the top-10 by the end of the rally. Bit of a slake in organisation but guess with the current unfortunate incident things will not improve much,’’ said Vishram.

Day Six will pass through Neptune (110kms), Kwale (72kms) and Ukunda (21kms).