Remon Vos crowned East Africa mini classic champion

A five-hour penalty for defending champion Baldev Chager and Piers Daykin for deviating from the designated rally route saw Dutch driver Remon Vos crowned the East Africa mini classic rally winner in his second participation in Kenya.

Chager and Daykin had initially finished in first and second place with Vos in third place but a stewards report revealed that the duo had deviated from the rally route at Singore-Chebiemit a 58.55 km) stage.

“Car 3 (Daykin's) deviated from the defined rally route in CS8 at 31.50km and the tracking shows a deviation of 6.57kms off the route thus missing 21 tulip diagrams. Having considered the matter, the competitor did not follow the prescribed road book,” the stewards report said with the same rule and distance used to penalise Charger who was hoping for a third consecutive Mini Classic title. 

Vos, driving a Porsche 911 began the rally on Friday on a good note, posting the fastest time at the Solai-Bogoria stage which was 90km long in addition to clinching Metkei-Kapkitony 2 a 82.35km stretch as well as Kipsaos-Muskut 62.66km stage on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Following the penalties on Daykin and Chager, Raaji Bharji, moved to second place, finishing more than eight minutes behind the winner. 

Bharji's run was not as smooth as he had also been handed a five-minute penalty for taking a bridge instead of the river crossing at the Kapkitony-Kipsaos 69.88km stage in the first loop. 

"The first stage of the day was good but the last two stages were a disaster. I do not think we broke any rules on the last stage but we got lost.

Both of our GPSs stopped working and we had no distance calculation. It is almost impossible to navigate in such a situation. It has not been a good day of rallying,” Daykin, who was driving a Datsun 280Z, said in his defense. 

 Results

1. Remon Vos/ Stephane Prevot (Porsche 911) 08:36:56.6

2. Raaji Bharij /Ravi Soni (Ford Escort MK 1) 08:44:57.8

3. Geoff Bell/ Tim Challen (Datsun 240Z) 09:16:44.6

4. Farhaaz Khan/ Arshad Khan (Porsche 911) 09:49:42.5

5. Rajay Sehmi / Raj Jutley (Porsche 911) 09:59:36.3

6. Robert Calder/ Gavin Laurence (Datsun 280Z) 10:05:43.8

7. Jonathan Somen / Richard Hechle (Ford Escort MK 2) 10:14:09.8

8. Steven Parkinson/ Russell Parkinson (Ford Escort MK 2) 10:15:05.2

13. Baldev Chager/Gareth Dawe (Porsche 911) 13:23:58.8

14. Piers Daykin/Tariq Malik (Datsun 280Z) 13:26:07.5