Tundo wins Safari Rally: Onkar Rai and Gareth Dawe airlifted to Nairobi after their Skoda nosedived

Winners Kenyans Carl Tundo (R)  the scond placed  Baldev Chagar celebrate with their trophies after the African Safari Rally 2018 at Sopa Lodge Hotel in Naivasha, Nakuru County, on Sunday 18/03/18 [Boniface Okendo,Standard]

 

Carl ‘Flash’ bags 66th edition of Safari Rally to equal Shekhar Mehta’s record of five wins.

Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo navigated by Tim Jessop in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X won the 66th edition of the Safari Rally in the Great Rift Valley region to equal Shekhar Mehta’s record of five wins.

Shekhar, one of the greatest Safari drivers, won the event in 1973, 1979, 1980, 1981, and 1982 during the World Rally Championship days while Tundo won it in 2004 in Mombasa, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2018 after the event had been relegated to African Rally Championship status.

Incredibly, Tundo has achieved all the five wins with Jessop in his navigator’s seat.

And the three-time Kenya champions (Tundo and Jessop) did it with bravado after leading the second round of the 2018 FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) from start to finish.

‘Flash’, as he is fondly referred to, displayed awesome skills on flash floods to rack up the most coveted racing crown in the country.

He clocked 1:55.05 hours to beat Baldev Singh Chager of Kabras Sugar Racing to second as three-time Ugandan champion Jas Mangat sealed the podium dash.

 Kenyan Carl Tundo navigated by Tim Jessop in their Mitsubishi Evolution 10  in action during The African Safari Rally 2018 in Kedong, Naivasha, Nakuru County on Sunday 18/03/18 [Boniface Okendo,Standard]

 

Chager and Mangat moved up on the leaderboard after the second Skoda Fabia R5 of Onkar Rai and Gareth Dawe was involved in an accident.

Both Onkar and Gareth were airlifted to Nairobi for treatment. Gareth was reportedly unconscious after their Skoda nosedived on the last section.

Onkar’s father Jaswant Rai was at the scene of the accident when his team was being airlifted by the event’s safety chopper.

Tundo savoured the fairy tale success. “It hasn’t sunk in yet. We are so chuffed with the victory but really sorry about Onkar’s accident,” said Tundo.

Randeep Singh of Tanzania also enjoyed his career best Safari finish after returning his Evolution X machine in fourth overall.

“It was such a tough rally and we are happy to be back in one piece,” Randeep said.

Kenya’s Menengai Cream duo of Eric Bengi and Tuta Mionki also registered their career best finish on Safari, which was also the second round of the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC)

“Due to the flash floods we took it really easy and pushed where we could. But quite a shame that Onkar had to exit with an accident. We wish him and his navigator quick recovery,” said Bengi, who is the 2016 KNRC Two Wheel Drive Champion.

Bengi siad he was happy that his Subaru Impreza N12 was now getting reliable after a series of retirements last year.

“We have really worked to improve the reliability of the car and I’m glad the results are now coming through,” said Bengi, whose navigator, Tuta, was equally elated.

Farhaaz Khan of Kenya settled for sixth place.

“Very happy with what we have achieved thus far. We pushed constantly on the last day today (yesterday) and it paid off.” Well done to the service crew for replacing the windscreen at the overnight parc ferme of day two to enable us to continue today (yesterday),” said Khan.