As the cars raced from Mto wa Mbu after their gentle rest day and thorough overhaul on day 5, Car no 3 Stig Blomqvist’s Porsche 911 retained his road and points lead over the rest of the cars, zooming out of CS15 after completing the 232kms with no issues. “It was smooth,” said the quiet Swede on return to the service park, “no dramas.” His car, however did require some work due to hitting a rock.
He was followed by his Team Tido stable mate car no 6 Goransson, chased by BMA-serviced Gregoire de Mevius in car no 2, yet another Porsche. “It was a good day for us. We did the best time in CS13 at 19:28,” said de Mevius. “in the longest section CS14, we caught Alistair Cavanagh and had to slow to activate the screamer (in car signal system to help overtaking) so we lost some time there.
“On the last stage we also caught Goransson who had stopped to repair a tyre, but it was just as he was taking off, so we had to stay in his dust.”
Conditions were dry on the Sections CS13 to 15 and offered a combination of technical driving, twists and turns, rocky rough sections and long speedy dusty moments.
Unfortunately for Kenyan fans, the cars that presented a challenge to the front-running Porsche’s suffered numerous mishaps. Kenyan Alistair Cavanagh in car no 10, who has consistently pressurised the Team Tido and BMA Porsche’s broke his suspension in the second section of the day.
“We had a bit of a disaster when the torsion bar broke, so we had to drive 50kms with it broken and the whole second section with no suspension at all, which was tough as it was a rough stage. At least we completed, and didn’t get any time penalties.” This pushed Cavanagh to 8th position overall.
And Carl Tundo in his car on 5 Triumph TR7 who is low on the points scale, but high on road pressure also had an unsuccessful day when their half shaft broke in the section second. “The radiator pipe came off, so we were losing coolant, so we had to stop and fill up a couple of times. We have to go for a finish now. That’s our aim.”
Coming through on the road for Kenya were car 41 Tejveer Rai, who had a clean run and wound up in fifth place, and car 21 Raaji Bharij, who was able to start despite his damaged wrist.
A lot of other cars had major challenges over the rough sections, particularly CS14 and CS15. Car 25 Richard Jackson’s Porsche 911 moved from fourth to 17th, taking a penalty for not completing the final section. Car no 12’s Datsun 260Z Andrew Sidall had three punctures in CS14 and ran out of tyres before were forced to retire for the day, taking penalties for not completing the third section, which will drop them well below their starting 8th ranking.
“We tried to get to the end by swapping the wheels to use what bit of tyre we had, and had to stop when bits of the car started flailing off. So we have dropped down horribly.”
We are gutted about it as we wanted to finish in the Top 10, but that’s looking less and less likely.”
Similarly car no 44 came in on shredded wheels after the rougher sections. Car no 40, Peugeot 504 of the dapper Francois Lethier had yet more problems when their wheels buckled following a broken rotor. “Its incredible, each day we have had something,” he said. “We are learning each time, but I have never had it happen like this before.”
Car 29, Nick Mason’s Datsun lost their clutch in the first section and ran the entire 117kms of the second section on gears. Then in the 3rd section they lost the brakes, limping out slowly to finish the day safely.
For the Trabant fans, Michael Kahlfuss arrived safely. “We are relieved he said,” I was concerned the other day about how many days we can still make, but we have come through today.” And Bernard Kessel’s Porsche 911, which had engine failure a few days ago repaired, started and finished the day.
Those less fortunate were car 28 Marzio Kravas’ Ferrari, which had terminal gearbox failure, which means he is out of the rally. Car no 35, the Mercedes 450 SLC was unable to start the first competitive section due engine problems.