NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 6 – Defending champion, Baldev Chager, retained his title after leading from start to finish to win the World’s Greatest mini–Classic Rally.
Chager beat fellow Kenyan Ian Duncan and South African Geoff Bell as his Porsche 911 covered over 650 kilometres of competitive stages in just under six and a half hours at an incredible average speed of over 100 kmh.
On the longest day of the rally at 250 kilometres the clouds parted for Mount Kilimanjaro, the subject of folklore and legend, to cast its magical spell on a spectacular mini-Classic event.
A clearly delighted Baldev said, “It has been absolutely amazing, just being in this car puts a smile on your face, winning an event with it is just magical.” He paid tributed his close rally colleagues, “we miss Onkar and Tej Rai in such a social and enjoyable event and hope one day someone will come back from the family and drive a few Classics at least.”
Ian Duncan, in his Minti Motorsport sponsored Rover V8, finished just over 7 minutes behind in second place and was delighted after a string of issues with Classic Cars recently.
“To get to the end was really cool and to finish second was a bonus.” Ian paid tribute to the organisers saying, “what a great job they did and thank you very much, a good entry and a well-run event.”
Geoff Bell’s Magnum sponsored Datsun 240Z finished third, just eleven minutes behind Baldev, and looked forward to the Classic in February: “We had problems with our tyres so something that we’ve learnt to take to the main Classic in February and to be behind Chager and Duncan is a big honour anyway. This was a good route, and we can’t wait until February.”
Local favourite Eric Bengi received a rapturous reception from his team and followers after climbing 5 places on the final day to finish 6thin his Minti Motorsports sponsored Datsun 180B. Stablemate and driver of the only ladies’ team, Maxine Wahome continued her impressive form climbing to fourteenth overall.
In the Rally Raid category, Mark Glen amazingly overturned a six-minute deficit at the end of day 2 to beat Ross Field to the inaugural East African Mini Classic title in that category.
Event Director, Tash Tundo, reflected on an event encapsulating the culture of the World’s Greatest Classic Rally: “It has been a wonderful Mini Classic Rally, we’ve seen amazing rallying in an incredible location, brought lots of old friends together in a competitive spirit of camaraderie and had 23 finishers out 32. We are all looking forward to the main event in February 2022.”
