African adventure for Ludlow motor club members

The event, based in Mombassa, covered over 2000 miles in total with 1100 of those being competitive miles on mainly rough dirt roads.

Weaver travelled under the banner of his company, Weaver Motorsport. His task for the eight day event was to look after top Belgium driver Gregoire de Mevius in his Porsche 911. Weaver spent the week prior to the rally preparing the car for the ordeal to come! Seeded at number two, much was expected of de Mevius.

Clarke meanwhile was teamed up with Swedish driver Jan Hagman in a Viking Motorsport (Newtown) prepared Ford Escort MkII - Hagman having previous experience of the event would be a bonus for Clarke on his first rally in Africa.

The first day's stage were north of Mombassa and following some heavy rainfall in the preceding week conditions were tricky with large mud holes and long sections of flooded dirt track that just became a quagmire after the first few cars. Only a handful of cars made it through one such section on the second stage, others being forced to pay the locals to push them out with the going rate being 2000 Ksh or £13. Eventually the organisers were forced to cancel the stage.

Several cars went out of the event on the first day, usually due to being caught out by the conditions. It was though a wakeup call for the majority of the crews for whom a finish would be everything.

The following three days headed west and then north with the event eventually basing itself at Oltukai Lodge in the Amboseli National Park where competitors awoke to the magnificent sight of Mount Kilmanjaro poking its head high above the clouds.

Weaver was kept busy when de Mevius had an issue on day two leading to much frantic action by his service crew in an effort to keep the Belgian in the rally. He was sent on his way but picked up 11 minutes of penalty for being late at the next control, dropping him to fourth.

No such woes for Clarke and Hagman, just a puncture which they had to stop and change losing four to five mins, leaving them in 19th place going into the rest day.

The next three days headed over the border into Tanzania where it was noticeable that the infrastructure was of a much higher standard than Kenya, lovely tarmac link roads and substantial buildings in the villages.

No time for the crews to admire the scenery though as the rally continued its frantic schedule heading south towards the expanding township of Arusha where the event would be based for two nights sending the cars into some of the wildest and most remote country with crews driving through Masai Villages where people lined the route waving them on and taking pictures with their mobile phones. The road book warned of elephants crossing the tracks!

At this stage of the rally cars and crews had taken a real pounding, however, this is where solid car preparation pays off and slowly as other crews hit trouble Clarke/Hagman climbed the leader board to end day five in 15th.

Another solid day on day six as they picked their way through some very rough sections littered with rocks and with some sections of track completely washed away by erosion, plus very large ditches interspersed with hidden jumps! End of day saw them rise to 11th, the aim of a top 10 becoming a real possibility.

Day seven repeated day six stages albeit in reverse so more of the same for Clarke/Hagman, unfortunately they picked up a puncture, ironically on one of the faster, cleaner sections. They were forced to stop and change it losing time but managing to hold on to their 11th position going into the final day.

Meanwhile Weaver was keeping de Mevius on the road and he was up to third overall.

Day eight saw crews head back into Kenya to tackle a stage in the Taita Hills before heading back towards Mombassa. The Taita Hills stage, once a classic, and smooth, was a shadow of its former self being very rough, most crews just picking their way through conscious of the fact that this was the last day and a finish was in sight.

The relief and sense of satisfaction for those who made it to the end of the final stage was enormous. The rally had lived up to its name as the world's toughest rally, positions were almost irrelevant for most competitors, however Clarke/Hagman had managed to move into 10th place overall.

Weaver was at the end of the final stage to congratulate Clarke/Hagman having already seen his driver finish in third place, a real feather in the cap for Weaver Motorsport.

Just a two year wait now for the next East African Safari Rally.

at the Ludlow Brewery starting at 20.00, all are welcome.

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