‘Flash’ Tundo, Rai in a slip seconds race to victory

An impressive opening section drive, Soysambu 1 18.75km Special Stage, gave Carl “Flash” Tundo a 13 seconds cushion lead over rival Onkar Rai which he built to 22 seconds at the end of the second leg of the 2018 ARC Safari Rally in Gilgil area today after 134km of driving.

Tundo, navigated by Tim Jessop in a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X surprised fellow competitors with his mastery of the damp road surface to open a 13.00 sec lead in Soysambu 1 averaging speed of 96.5km with Rai marginally behind at 94.8kph.

This was the decisive drive of the day with Manvir Baryan, co-driven by Drew Struck in Skoda Fabia 33 seconds behind. Surprising though Rai pulled back nine seconds over Tundo after he averaged 107.7kph in the same distance on the second loop route as the road surface dried up.

On 25km SS 3, Sleeping Warrior, Rai knocked off only 3secs over Tundo with Baryan 5.6sec behind Baryan joined the fray in the SS 4 Elmentaita 1 to attempt dismantling Tundo lead but did only a 4.3sec damage over Tundo with Rai 5.6sec off the leader’s pace.

Rai surprised his protagonists when he won Soysambu 2 by 9.5 seconds over Tundo who won the next by pulling back 3.8secs. Despite Rai winning the last stage by 5.4 seconds, Tundo returned back to base still the leader.

The departure of Baryan, former Africa Champion Jaspreet Chatthe left Baldev Chager though 2 minutes 24.1 seconds as the only challenger on the final day as Tanzanians Randeep Singh and Grinder Singh in a Mitsubishi EVO X was 8:31secs behind Tundo.

It won’t be easy either today after heavy rains started pounding Kedong area from 3:00pm, the 3km section which produced some surprising flash flooded sections, slippery and muddy patches which is the perfect diet for the EVO X. However, on Rai fans will be treated high octane drama and probably a sting in the tails just like the Classic Safari last year when Tundo out of the blues cleared a wet and slippery section which catapulted him to the lead.

From now henceforth motorsport journalists might as well take cue from their colleagues in athletics where time is measured in mili seconds.

This is because the standard WRC timing system, managed by a Bulgarian come offers live tracking displays every vehicle taking part in the rally with its rally number and offers a pop up window with information on the driver, co-driver, type of vehicle, GPS position and latest time stamp.

Results Day Two:

As after SS07 Elementaita 2:

1. Car No. 3 – Carl “Flash” Tundo/Tim Jessop (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 01:36:52.3
2. Car No. 6 – Onkar Rai/Gareth Dawe (Skoda Fabia R5) 22 secs behind
3. Car No. 5 – Baldev Chager/Ravi Soin (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 02

mins, 46.1 secs

4. Car No. 204 – Randeep Singh/Gurvinder Singh (Mitsubishi Evo

10) 00:08:31.0

5. Car No. 200 – Jas Mangat/Joseph Kamya (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 00:09:18.8
6. Car No. 14 – Eric Bengi/Tuta Mionki (Subaru Impreza) 00:11:02.0
7. Car No. 203 – Duncan Mubiru/Musa Nsubuga (Subaru Impreza) 11:40.0
8. Car No. 10 – Farhaaz/Kashif Shaikh (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 00:12:02.3
9. Car 29 – Ammar Haq/Victor Okundi (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 00:07:03.2
10. Car No. 17 – Mahesh Halai/Ketan Halai (Subaru Impreza) 00:22:00.6
11. Car No. 19 – Aakif Virani/Azhar Bhatti (Subaru Impreza N14) 00:22:06.1
12. Car No. 12 – Nikhil Sachania/Alfir Khan (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 00:25:33.5
13. Car No.13 – Sohanjeet Puee/Adnan Din (Subaru Impreza N10) 00:33:05.0
14. Car No. 18 – Shameer Yusuf/Edward Maina (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 00:35:24.3
15. Car No 15 – Edward Maina/ John Ngugi (Subaru Impreza) 00:40:13.4
16. Car No. 57 – Richard Arrowsmith/ Roger Cmiowood (Ford Escort) 00:41:08.2
17. Car No. 48 – Geoff Mayes/ Jamie Mactavish (Land Rover) 00:00:54.81
18. Car No. 201 – Martin Shinnors/Catherine Shinnors (Ford Escort MK2)

00:42:33.3

19. Car No. 53 – Imran Khan/Thabit Khan (Subaru Impreza N10) 00:44:26.5