Baldev Chager and his teammate Onkar attacked Day 6 of the East African Safari Classic Rally in Tanzania both winning the three stages of the day with zest and vigour.
The Kabras Sugar Racing’s duo is playing catch up on the leaderboard after losing lots of time on Day 4.
Chager, who moved up to 13th after winning CS15 and Onkar who claimed CS13 and CS15, had to contend with playing second fiddle to Austrian Kris Rosenberger who retained the lead after another gruelling day of action. All has not been well with Kenyans in this year’s classic.
Chager has on two occasions missed two stages due to mechanical gremlins and so has Onkar who lost his lead with driveshaft problems on the fourth day.
At the close of the first half on Sunday, Rosenberger savoured a superb drive that saw him take back the overnight lead. Navigated by Nicole Bleicher in a Tuthill Porsche 911, Kris went to bed yesterday with a 21.05.7 minutes cushion over Swede Stig Blomqvist despite coming in fifth on the last stage which was the 55.70km stage at Nzimwi in Tanzania.
A hard-charging Chager came in second on the stage. After six days of tough and wet terrain, Kris is leading the event on 08:21.15.0 hours. Stig is sitting second while Philip Kadoorie is lying third 54.22minutes behind the leader.
It was another bad day in the office for legendary Ian Duncan who had started to show promising results on the fourth day notwithstanding his problems in the early days.
A total of the 17 drivers started yesterday morning and embarked on the gruelling three-stage run from Tanga. Tejveer Rai, who was the leading Kenyan on Day 4 in third, was spotted driving without a front right wheel which dipped him from third to eighth.
Duncan was languishing in 17th position. unfortunately, Duncan was on a tow rope after suffering oil pressure problems. Onkar said: “Today (yesterday) was a good day for me and Boldy as we dictated the pace.”
Chager said: “Unfortunately, lady luck is not on our side but we are not going to give up. Obviously, we can’t win but in the team spirit we’ve got to keep supporting our team-mates Onkar and Tejveer.”
The longest stage set for yesterday’s Day 6 was cancelled after being rendered impassable. Organisers recreated the day’s route itinerary making sure that drivers get the mileage as expected.
