Remon Vos wins EA Safari Rally Mini Classic

Remon Vos is the 2022 East African Mini Classic Safari Rally Champion after an inspired drive for the past three days.  

Defending champion Baldev Chager for a moment thought he had hit a hat trick of wins in the mini classic but received a 5 hours penalty to leave the door open for Vos to claim his maiden win in Kenya.

Chager and Piers Daykin were summoned by the stewards after the final stage (SS9), after it emerged that they had deviated from the defined rally course by a whooping 6.57kms in SS8 and thus missing 21 tulips diagrams which is a breach of Article 5 (ii) of the event regulations.

Having considered the offence and the competitors heard, the stewards reached a verdict of issues a 5 hour penalty to both drivers relegating them to position 13 and 14 respectively and effectively handing the victory to Remon Vos who was only racing for the second time in Kenya.

Speaking to Citizen digital moments after the completion of the rally, Remon Vos who is navigated the experienced Stephane Prevot wasn't aware of his victory but expressed satisfaction at having done consistently well for the past three days.

"It's been very exciting and demanding for car and team. Fantastic that they made sure the car was performing well and fantastic support from the team. The stages have been exciting, a bit rough now and then, but not blowing. So very nice. We've been fighting for third position and maybe even better that that but beautiful country to be in." Said Vos

And indeed it got way better moments later after the stewards communicated their decision to penalize Boldy and Daykin, leaving Vos the ultimate winner of one of the most grueling classic events in the world. The Dutchman couldn't hide his admiration of racing in Kenya.

"I don't rally so much because this is the second time in a rally car. I think it's a fantastic event because of the scenery, the country and the roads which are sometimes very different; sometimes you have mountain roads going up steep, other times you have nice longer turns so I can't really compare to Europe."

Piers Daykin explained what exactly went wrong at the Singore-Chebiemit stage where he missed the rally route.

"The last two stages were disastrous we got lost on both stages. We didn't break any rules in the last stage (SS9 -Kapsowar-Chebara) but we were lost and unaware of where we were supposed to be going on the second stage, so we are waiting for the stewards decision and I have a feeling that is gonna upset our results. Close to that valley both of our gps devices stopped working on our transmitter so we had no distance calculation so it's almost impossible to navigate in a situation like that when you have no distance."

Piers gut feeling was totally correct as they were handed a hefty 5 hour penalty  for going off the route in SS8.

Ford Escort MK1 driver Bharij Raaji who had dominated the classic up until yesterday's 5 minute penalty, redeemed himself to clinch victory in Class 3, which is made up of cars of up to 2000cc, a win he was delighted about.

"It was really a fun rally; incredibly hard on the body and on the cars. It's been nice to come back to Eldoret and do some different roads and it's been extremely challenging. We did our best; we led day 1 and day 2 and then we got a penalty yesterday that dropped us back but I don't think it would have made a difference because today was more suited for the big cars so we will come back and try make a Ford win, however we have won our class, so that's good," Said Raaji.

Raaji, who won the 2016 Top fry 1000 classic finished second overall ahead of South African veteran Geoff Bell, with father-son duo of Farhaaz Khan and Arshad Khan in their Porsche 911 claiming the fourth position ahead of Jonathan Somen who completed the top five.

Bell noted that some stages were way too rough for the classic cars, a concern that has been shared by many drivers.

"First day was extremely rough; too rough for classic cars. It was much more like off road racing but the last two days have been excellent, we really enjoyed it. Of course there was a little bit roughing in there but we enjoyed it." Bell assessed.

Provisional Final Results after SS09 (Kapsowar-Chebar)

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