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WCRA
website promoting Stage and TSD Rally Sport in
British Columbia |
| 2003
East African Safari Rally - Rally
Report December 10-19, 2003 |
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| Hi All |
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| Unfortunately, due to a family crisis, Peter was not able to go to Kenya. Instead, we were fortunate to have Timothy take over Peter's position in the navigator seat and David continues in the service vehicle together with a new team member, Eric, who is a local Kenya lad. He is a management trainee at the Cooper Motor Corporation and we owe Robin Schalch a big vote of thanks for his help in this. The safari and the team go on! | ||||||
| I am currently
waiting a call from them - they should have arrived
in the Masai Mara to a well earned day off tomorrow.
As far as I know the car has behaved well, with
the exception of the rear shockabsorbers. It seems
the Bilsteins were not up to the job required which
resulted in two blown shocks, two blown drive shafts
and one broken rear spring. Many thanks go to Rob
Collinge (Currently leading the rally in a Datsun
240Z) and his workshop Robs Magic. We now have a
new rear susupension which seems to be holding up.
Road conditions must be very severe. When Paul gets
back he will tell us if we were over or under shocked!
The Silverstone tires are doing very well as is
the Alpha Rally computer. I reproduce the first
4 days of competition as I have reported it to the
RallyL list. Hopefully I will get this out on a
daily basis up to the end of the rally. Peter |
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| Dec
10 - Day 1 Destroyed 1 rear bilstein top mount |
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| Dec
11 - Day 2 Destroyed another bilstein, 2 half shafts. Scratched last competitive stage into Nairobi, replaced shocks with another make - I believe Toyota Landcruiser modified, found one Datsun competition rear spring broken, replaced both rear springs resulting in additional 1 cm clearance at rear. Rally car left Nairobi at approx. 10.00 p.m. to complete transit stage to Nanyuki for first competitive stage for Friday - 173km. We are still running! |
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| Service car left Nairobi to Nakuru and Baringo to meet rally car at end of first competitive stage Friday. No spare drive shafts left - hope we have licked the problem. Rest of car is running great. Nissan safari front supension doing the job! Keep your fingers crossed for the first stage Friday. Road conditions abominable - one Porsche ate 4 bilsteins today! |
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| Dec
12 - Day 3. |
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| Dec
13 - Day 4 Our car came through day 4 quite successfully. The crew sounded happy with the new rear suspension. Tires are great - no punctures as of yet- but a couple of bent rims. Increase tire pressure has looked after this. The day was fairly eventful for some of the other crews. Read about this on EastAfricanSafariRally.com The main challenge for our crew right now is tiredness. As of this writing they will have just checked into the final day control in the Masai Mara and can look forward to an evening off since tomorrow is a rest day and they will have more time to give the car a once over. They should be calling within the next couple of hours and I will put out the next Day 5 update. |
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| Great
news The 510 is through to the
Mara. |
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| Dec
14 - Day 5 Thanks again to Ken Burt of Burt Bros. Motorsports
and Mark for getting this to us. Only one puncture
so far - kudos to the driver and Silverstone Rally
Tyres. Timothy tells me that, as always, the Alpha
is right on the button. One of these days I'm
going to have to learn how to use that thing!
I think I can manage the VCR at home by now! The
day will be spent driving up the West Apparently they are scheduled to have "brunch" with Lord and Lady Delamere (all 200 odd drivers, service crews etc., ya right!), subsequently what I believe will be their only closed special competitive stage and then on to Nairobi for the night. When I last looked about an hour ago the organizers had not yet updated the results and start list for tomorrow. Communications with the Mara must be rather difficult! I understand that there are 41 cars left in the field, this means 12 cars have dropped out! All I can say is Great Job Guys! |
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| Dec
15 - Day 6 Tuesday night in Kenya 12:20 p.m. Vancouver time - 11.20 p.m. Kenya time. The car is not yet through to Nairobi, however, they are all safe and sound. The clutch went out on them just south of Nakuru and they had to turn back to Nakuru to try to get a replacement installed. I understand that they are doing this right now at the Cooper Motor Corp. shop in Nakuru. Thanks again go to Robin Schalch and Cooper Motors. All things being equal, they should be getting into Nairobi at around 2.00 to 3.00 a.m., couple of hours sleep and then on to the next day's competition. This will in the direction of Tanzania. Look for the start list for tomorrow on the main rally website, this will tell you if they are still in the competition. Let's hope they make it through. |
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| Good news, Paul and Timothy got into Nairobi at 3.00 a.m.after putting the new clutch in, slept a couple of hours and were away by 7.00 a.m. They have just finished their first competitive stage and drove past the first service point meaning that all is O.K. Tonight they should be in Arusha, Tanzania. Peter |
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| Dec
17 - Day 8 Just talked to David (service crew) The car just limped in to the parking lot of the hotel in Arusha - Tanzania. This isn't too far from Mt Kilimanjaro. Broken tie rod I understand. They are right now replacing it - thanks to Noel at Newport for that additional part and Alan at Park Shore - remember looking for it! It's 9.00 p.m. over there - they will be needing their sleep. Hope to hear very soon that all is OK again Peter |
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| The saga continues. The steering tie rod has been replaced but the problem is with the damaged sump guard - something about the car hitting a boulder and being thrown 6 feet into the air. This happened after the tie rod broke. The sump guard is made of approx 1/2 " thick aircraft aluminium and goes from the front bumpers back to behind the rear end of the tranny. Once bent it is very difficult to fit again. Decision time, try once more to get it to fit first thing tomorrow morning - their start time is just after 7.00 or run without the guard and be very careful. The goal is to finish. The team is exhausted but has done a remarkable job - most competitors have a separate professional service crew and just hand over the car at the end of the day. Our boys start fixing! I have told them that there is an immense amount of positive thought going out in their direction from all over the world. Do it guys! |
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| Well, they are
on their way! They drove across the start just after 7.00, went straight to a shop where some creative work with a drill machine had the sump guard installed short order. They are headed towards the Pare Mountains via Moshi (at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro) and then on into the Usumbara Mountains. This will be one of the tougher competitive stages - the Usumbaras are famous for the one safari rally when only 7 cars made it the finish - back in the 50's! They'll be in Tanga tonight which is on the Indian Ocean and a short half day tomorrow to the finish. I'm sure they can just about smell it! Thank you everybody for your emails of encouragement. Paul, David, Timothy and Eric really appreciate it. Peter |
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| Dec
18 - Day 9 The car is through to Tanga! Not too much drama. They had to replace a front strut top mount at one of the service points. The sump pan has held. The car is serviced, oils and filters changed, and the crew finally has had the chance to sit down to a "normal" evening at the "normal" time. This means they can sit on the beach and have a beer! And they deserve it. Sleep deprivation has been one of their greatest challenges. Tomorrow is the final day. At the risk of being accused of "counting my chickens before they have hatched" - just a couple of competitive stages and they can cruise down the beach (apparently) to the finish line. The welcoming committee in the shape of Andrea Ryce is ready and waiting. Tomorrow night's party will be quite something! They have promised to talk to me before the festivities begin! My next post should be after the event is over. Keep pushing until then. Peter |
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| Dec
19 - End of Rally - Well, it's done! Safari 510 crossed the finish line this afternoon - Kenya time. A weary but very happy crew! I understand right now Paul is in the swimming pool with a beer in his hand! If you know Paul this is quite something - it's not easy to get him to drink a beer at all! Paul also asked me to mention what a fantastic job the Silverstone rally tyres did - I believe they only had one puncture! Some of the competitors have driven in other long distance rallies and have expressed the opinion that the road conditions were some of the worst they have ever experienced. The car will soon be on it's way back to Vancouver. I understand that the SCCA will be or already has included an historic class in their stage rallies. Timothy will update our safari510 site in the next few days so keep an eye out for this. This will be my last posting on this collective email, so it's been great being able to communicate with everyone - keep those emails coming! Thank you everyone for your support and positive thoughts over the last days. Thank you also to all our sponsors. A list of all our sponsors and supporters can be seen on our safari510 website. I hope I haven't missed anybody! Peter |
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