Austrian Rosenberger Reclaims Leaderboard Spot Safaricom East African Safari Classic Rally

East African Safari Rally 2019
copyright: East African Safari Rally/McKlein

Austrian Kris Rosenberger had a superb drive yesterday that saw him take back the overnight lead after the 4th day of the Safaricom East African Safari Classic Rally.

Navigated by Nicole Bleicher in a Tuthill Porsche 911, Kris opened a 36.0 seconds gap after posting the cumulative time after the 4 days of 06.53.57 to take the leader board position in a day that saw the competitors tackle dynamic stages from Arusha to Tanga.

Veteran Stig Blomqvist who earlier in the day won the 40Km Kifaru/Mwanga first stage of the day settled for the second overall spot on the leader board with a time of 06:54:27 followed by Kabras Racing

Teams Tejveer Rai navigated by Gavin Laurence in third, with 07:09:05. The former WRC champion posted the best time of all the day’s stages 01:44:54. This was Blomqvist’s first stage win of the classic rally this year. Earlier, Onkar Rai won the 92Km.

Same/Mkomazi 2nd stage of the day but drive shaft problems dampened his run. Onkar finished the 4th day 8th in 07:18:03

Former classic rally champion Ian Duncan who is sitting with Anthony Nielsen in their River Vitesse finished the 4th day at position 15th with 07:15:44.2

“Good day today, the car works better in this altitude when we were coming down hill so it wasn’t so bad. Very nice stages, the last one was bit Mickey Mouse for few kilometers but otherwise it was fun.

We just need some more power. What we have is a very standard engine.”

Earlier in the day the proverbial rally gremlins continued to dog Kabras Racing Teams Baldev Chager who missed two stages of the day.

During the first stage, Chager’s Porsche 911 encountered torsion bar problems which part of the main suspension system.