Controlling the pace today helped Stig Blomqvist retain his lead on the road, in another exciting day of rallying, which included the longest single section of the rally, at a distance of 158kms. “I took it easy,” said the seasoned rally champ who did his first East African rally in 1971. “We had some problems with the tyres yesterday so I had to be really careful.”
This meant that Goransson in car no 6 and de Mevius in car no 2 both driving Porsche 911’s sat in Blomqvist’s dust for most of the long section on a beautiful sunny day in Tanzania. “We can’t use screamers to overtake, because we are all travelling too fast to get as close as 200m for it to activate,” said Car no 2’s navigator Nicolas Gisoul. “But we are still pleased with today.”
Despite Stig’s road lead it was Gregoire de Mevius who finished in the best time today, with a final tally of 156:28, followed by Kenya’s Carl Tundo in his Triumph TR7 in 157:55, and Goransson just a second slower at 157:56.
With tight close times, the race for the top slots is still on.
“There’s only 25 seconds between us and Car no 2 in that first section, which alone is the distance of half a full WRC rally.,” said Emil Axelsson of Car no 6, “and Stig controlled the pace from ahead. It wasn’t bad because we got the car back in one piece, which was our plan. There are still 2 days to go.”
Kenya’s Carl Tundo in Car no 5, a Triumph TR7 set the fastest speed in CS16, finishing in 83;48, a time that was 4 minutes faster than Stig’s time. He dropped to 11th place in the second section, but finished a creditable second at the end of the Day 7, leaving him in 8th place overall.
Brit Geoff Bell in his Datsun 260Z had a good day, finishing 8th on Day 7, leaving him in 4th place in the overall rankings and breaking Porsche dominance of the top 5 slots. Bernard Munster’s steady performance keeps him at fifth place in his Porsche 911.
A number of vehicles bow out of the rally. Onkar Rai, previously sitting at 5th place overall is now out following engine trouble. His brother Tejveer Rai got stuck in a mud hole having slowly rolled the car in CS16. Despite attempts by others to help it took some two hours before he was back on the road, and he dropped to 13th place overall.
Tim Chesser, car no 44, who had a tough day 6 with shredded tyres had a broken gearbox 75kms into the first section and managed to drive the remaining 60kms in third gear before getting stuck trying to avoid another car. They were unable to restart, and missed the second section, dropping to 40th place after 2 difficult days.
Car 30 Frank Tundo’s TR7 broke his steering and was also stuck in a section. Kenyan Aslam Khan Porsche was luckier. When he had an electronic failure some 20kms from the end of CS16, the gallant team in the pink Porsche driven by David von Schinkel, towed them the entire way out of the section.
In smaller incidents car 37 Connolly’s luminescent green Porsche got stuck in a mud hole and was towed out by locals, as was Bernhard Kessel in car no 45.
A few cars were didn’t start today. Car 35, the Mercedes 450SLC of NAC Rally Molgo/Domownik has pulled out although he remained determined to return another year
“We have learned a lot, and plan to come back next year with a better prepared car, rather than taking a normal car and bringing it along to do this rally.”
Likewise Car no 40 the Peugeot 504, while still in the rally, also feels this is a recce for future events. “It is more difficult than Morocco and Senegal, and we are learning from this experience how to do it better next time.”
Car no 12 Sidall/Williamson’ Datsun 260Z, opted not to start after their long stop in CS14 yesterday.
Car’s no 33, Jonathan Somen’s Ford Escort, 29, Nick Mason’s Datsun, car 26, Jayant Shah, car 52 Nish Lakhani, car 43 Ramesh Vishram, car 42 Rommy Bamrah. Car 47 Kobus Coetzee, and 32 Gilberto Sandretto were among those who had a smooth day with minimal problems.