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Blomqvist maintains lead, Rosenberger keeps chace, Onkar Rai third

Friday, December 6th, 2019 00:00 | By
Sweden’s Stig Blomqvist, navigated by Jorgen Fornander in their Tuthill Porsche 911 during the penultimate round of the East Africa Classic Rally yesterday. Photo/SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Special Correspondent 

Sweden’s Stig Blomqvist maintained his overall lead with one day to go in the ongoing East African Classic Safari Rally despite second-placed Austrian Kris Rosenberger putting up a spirited fight at the top of the table after day eight yesterday.

Navigated by Jorgen Fornander in their Tuthill Porsche 911, Blomqvist earlier won the second stage 58.30km Estate/Kileva but lost time in the third stage 7kKm Maungu/MC road after the steering wheel dumper broke 50km into the section. 

He is leading the 16 competitors with a time of 12.11.43. Rosenberger, navigated by Nicola Bleicher in a Tuthill Porsche 911, have several times been at the helm of the leaderboard and they now lying six seconds behind the former WRC 1984 champion Blomqvist with a time of 12:11:49.8.

“Another day, no problem and we are happy to be here. I want to stay close to Stig and if something happens to him, we are there.

We are keeping to our tactics going as fast as the car can go. It is not by coincidence that Stig has similar timings, it’s just that he knows this rally very well,” said Rosenberger. 

Kenya’s best placed crew of Kabras Racing Team’s Onkar Rai/Drew Sturrock in a Porsche 911 are lying third overall with a time of 12:42:36.

Rai, however, had a challenging day after his Porsche 911 clutch, slipped several times and also broke suspension in stage two. 

In the same stage, they had to stop three times because of animal traffic.

“A lot has to be done to catch up with Stig. We just have to keep the car on the road.

We have our own problems like today the clutch slipped in third stage and we broke our suspension in stage two so anything can happen but there is a long way to go still,” said Rai.

Kenyan contingent 

His brother, Tejveer Rai, navigated by Gavin Laurence, moved up two places on the leadersboard and are lying eighth with Aslam Khan/Imran Khan who were time barred after breaking the steering arm of their Porsche 911, finishing the day in 10th place.

Baldev Chager won the first stage of the day, the CS19 40km Sagala to Kirumbi posting the fastest time of 23.91 beating Italian Euginio Amos who won the second stage of the day.

Kenyan ace Ian Duncan, navigated by Anthony Nielsen, are placed 15th overall after struggling with his Rover Vitesse experiencing mechanical problems but managed to repair the problem and resumed the rally today.

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