Kenyan driver Ian Duncan, winner of the 1994 world championship Safari Rally at the wheel of a Toyota has now won the ten day East African Safari Classic Rally at the wheel of a Ford Mustang. 48 years old Duncan led from the second day to the finish, after the Belgian Porsche driver Gerard Marcy fell back with a puncture and damper failure. Porsche 911 cars, headed by that of Bjorn Waldegard, filled six of the top ten places, but third placed finished was British driver Steve Perez in a Datsun 260Z. Waldegard won the previous Classic Safari, run in 2007, at the wheel of a Ford Escort.

Many experienced World Championship competitors took part, with five times WRC winning codriver Staffan Parmender accompanying Perez, Stephane Prevot finished fourth alongside Marcy, but codriver Denis Giraudet had a troubled event to finished 30th. Former Ligier and Larrousse F1 driver Erik Comas was classified 36th and last in a Renault Alpine A110. This year’s event started and finished in Mombasa and covered sections in Kenya and Tanzania. Duncan set fastest time on 12 of the event’s 24 sections, suffering punctures in the north loop of the event and the day before the finish had a broken distributor drive. Waldegard, who had won the world championship Safari four times, won five of the other sections. Event class winners were Waldegard, Aziz Tejpar (Escort) and Kishen Bandheri (Datsun 1600 S).

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foto 1: Duncan - Ford Mustang
foto 2: Waldegard - Porsche 911