CHAGER TAKES AN OVERNIGHT SAFARI LEAD IN KAJIADO AS MISFORTUNE STRIKES ACE TUNDO 2008 Kenya National Rally champion Baldev Singh Chager inched closer to the coveted KCB Safari Rally diadem on the penultimate day after staging a clinical and well calculated run in Kajiado and its environs. Carl Tundo ran into mechanical problems Chager started the leg on a rousing note clocking 1:24.50 hours to beat Tundo by a 2minutes and 4 seconds margin. Legendary 1994 WRC Safari Rally winner Ian Duncan was the biggest casualty of the day when he retired on CS5 end in Konza with gearbox problems. Chager sounded quite febrile knowing too well that tomorrow’s 84-kilometer stage could alter the course of the rally altogether. The stage which is not for the faint-hearted runs from Il-bissel to Parane. Asked the secret of his Day 2 success, Chager who won the opening Kajiado Rally in January averred: “Safari always laden with surprises and you never know what’s up the sleeves of your opponents. We went into Isinya stage knowing that Tundo and Ian will push really hard. This is exactly what they did, though this was least surprising given that they are among the bigwigs in the sport. Ian had a problem and Flash (Tundo) was grappling with a puncture,” said Chager. The rockery in Kajiado claimed quite a number of cars. Rwandese crew of Giancarlo Davite and Sylvia Vindevogel- who are fighting to regain their lead in the FIA African Rally Championship (ARC)- unceremoniously kissed the Kenyan round goodbye with mechanical gremlins. Also making their premature exit were the Two wheel Drive VW crew of Gurmit Thethy and DP Kalsi with a broken rear axle on CS1. Tundo picked up a puncture on CS5 and watched in disbelief as the sump-guard of his Mitsubishi EVO9 fell off. Coming into service, Tundo was three minutes behind Chager but nonetheless fought gallantly in the last section. “We got a puncture and for this reason found ourselves three minutes behin. This necessitated us to stop to change the tyre. We had a clean run through the last section and took 40 second off Chager. We will try and do something spectacular in the 80 kilometers tomorrow (today).,” said Tundo. Day two was not devoid of drama. Hapz Sagoo from Mombasa also retired 6 kilometers to the end of CS4 with a rear broken diff. Richard Onyoni’s EVO 8 caught fire on CS5 but both the driver and navigator Ken Masoni were okay although chances of making a podium finish remained just that, a pipe-dream PROVISIONAL DAY 1 RESULTS 1. Baldev Chager/Ravi Soni (EVOX) 1:24.50 2. Carl Tundo/Tim Jessop (EVO9) 1:26.54 3. Azar Anwar/Julius Ngige (EVO8) 1.29.36 4. Jaspreet Chatthe/Gugu Panesar (EVO9) 1:33.39 4= Quentin Mitchell/Robin D. (Subaru N16) 1:33.39 6. Frank Tundo/Tash Di Cangio (EVO9) 1.33.49 7. Jassy Singh/Dave Sihoka (Subaru) 1.36.52 8. Manvir Baryan (Suabru N16) 1.36.54 9. Jas Mangat/Gihan De Silva (EVOX) 1:38.41 10. Essa Mohammed/Greg Stead (Subaru) 1:39.06 facebook/anwar.sidi
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 16:27:10 +0000
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