East African Safari Classic Rally 2013
Day 3 - Arusha to Arusha
The Amigos Tequila-flavoured beer branded Datsun 260Z of IRDC member Steve Perez and his Welsh co-driver John Millington continues its steady climb up the leaderboard on this year's challenging rally, just one place behind G-WRC rival and Kick Energy Amigos team-mate Geoff Bell and Tim Challen, also in a Datsun 260Z.
Three further sections of the Kenya Airways sponsored rally were completed today, comprising of over 540 Km's, beginning with the longest section of the event, the 154 Km segment from Komolo Road to Jeshini. Not only was this stage twice as long as a BTRDA National Rally, but was also the very same section where Perez suffered his severe accident in 2007, resulting in a broken neck! Thankfully this year, the biggest drama was a loss of brakes which caused him to miss a blind crest, the resulting impact damaging an engine mounting.
With limited time in service, the engine mounting was changed and the brakes bled but they played- up again, requiring co-driver John Millington to put his mechanical skills to good use, bleeding them once again. On the final test and with only front brakes, the 260Z began its daunting descent of the Mbulu Escarpment but the intrepid duo survived the stage and returned to Arusha to discover that they had actually improved their position to sixth overall.
Day 4 sees the surviving crews return to Kenya after tackling a 117 Km section in Tanzania with a further 200 Km's of competitive driving awaiting them on the Kenyan side of the border before reaching the Amboseli National Park in the shadows of Mount Kilimanjaro tomorrow evening.
Provisional Results to end of Day 3
1 Ian Duncan/Amaar Slatch - Ford Capri - 06:09.23
2 Stig Blomqvist/Staffan Parmander - Porsche 911 - 06:09.38
3 Gregoire De Mevius/Alain Guehennec - Porsche 911 - 06:11.27
4 Gerard Marcy/Stephan Prevot - Porsche 911 - 06:15.41
5 Geoff Bell/Tim Challen - Datsun 260Z - 06:20.01
6 Steve Perez/John Millington - Datsun 260Z - 06:35.24
7 Aziz Tejpar/Andy Nagi - Ford Escort - 06:36.48
8 Onkar Rai/Baldev Chager - Porsche 911 - 06:37.06
9 Phillip Vendromme/Federic Vivier - Porsche 911- 06:40.33
10 David Horsey/Alex Horsey - Porsche 911- 06:40.55
23rd November, 2013