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SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE

Follow-up from Saturday

Car No. 34 Ian Swan

Their Volvo seized the differential in the first section on Saturday. "We managed to tow it to the side of the road under the trees and when the service got into us, we changed the differential in the rear axle. It was only when we went to drive off that we discovered that the seizing of the axle had also caused the gearbox to fail. We had already used the spare gearbox so there was nothing for it but to tow the car back to Arusha. And we can't go out for Sunday as it is going to take the mechanics all day to try and build one gearbox out of two sets of bits. Still we hope that we will be able to do the final day."

Car No. 19 Paul and Mary-Ellen Kane

On yesterday's (Saturday's) last section the Kane pulled over to let someone pass and unfortunately ended up nose-down in a large dip. The crew were fine and, despite having to wait a long time to be recovered, enjoyed their day meeting the local people. Apparently the chief of the local tribe tried to pull the Mustang out himself but didn't quite have enough power. The Mustang was eventually towed out of the section to Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge. Although a little shaken from their own incident yesterday, the service crew will be working on the car today and the Kanes will re-start the final day tomorrow.

Car No 21 Jonathan Savage

The Datsun 260Z suffered an end-over-end roll from about 140 kph just before the end of the section Saturday section when it hit a concrete drift. The car has been retrieved and though considerably battered, the roll cage has stood up well and with remedial work to fix the damage to the bodywork and petrol filler today, the crew have the intention of continuing on Monday. "I'm certainly driving it to Mombasa and over the ramp whether we do the competitive sections or not" said Jonathan Savage "I'm certainly not going to put it on a truck !"

Early news from Sunday

Car No. 6 John Lloyd

The car has rolled about 60 km into the first marathon 154km section and is in no fit state to continue. Lloyd lost the back end and then rolled. Both the crew are OK and the car is awaiting retrieval. "I'm fine," said Lloyd. "All that's damaged is my ego and my bank balance."

Car No. 8 Steve Perez

This 260Z is also reported to have rolled but has reached the end of the section.
Of the first cars to finish the 154km section, Gerard Marcy was some three-and-a-half minutes faster than Waldegård. He was more than twelve minutes faster that Frederic Dor and has thus moved up into second place behind Waldegård. Stig Blomqvist's bad luck continues as he was stuck for 20 minutes in a river crossing.

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