Veteran Zimbabwean motor rally driver Jamie Whyte and his co-driver Phil Archenoul steered their Subaru Impreza N10 to a credible fourth place finish in the grueling three-day KCB Safari Rally of Kenya whose curtain came down yesterday.
Only 15 cars from the initial 80 who were flagged off on Friday managed to last the distance in what is considered as the toughest rally on the continent.
Former Kenya champion Carl Tundo and his co-driver Tim Jessop won the KCB Safari Rally of Kenya on home soil after maintaining a steady gap on their opponents after winning most of the tough stages for their third Safari win.
According to reports from Kenya, Tundo, who won the Kenya Safari Rally in 2004 and 2009, came first after holding on to a massive 5,42-minute overnight lead after claiming all the five stages at stake in a day full of drama and anticipation.
The Ugandan pair of Jas Mangat and his co-driver Gihan Desilva finished in second place with another Kenyan pair of Ian Duncan and Amaar Slatch coming home third. This year’s KCB Safari Rally was the fourth leg of the year’s eight-legged FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) series whose first three legs were held in Zimbabwe in March, South Africa, in April and Zambia last month.
According to reports from Kenya, the 50-year-old, Whyte who is defending African Rally Champion and currently sitting in third place on the ARC drivers’ standings held his own in Kenya, although it was not as rosy for another local driver Conrad Rautenbach. Conrad Rautenbach, who is leading the FIA ARC by 75 points, finished a disappointing fifth in a cautious run on the final day after damaging the bell-housing on his G-Fuel Ford Fiesta S2000 on Saturday.
