CHAMPION HEADS UK ENTRY ON SAFARI RALLY
Yorkshire man heads to classic endurance test with porsche
Yorkshireman Ryan Champion is targeting a top five finish on the East African Safari Classic Rally, which starts from Mombasa tomorrow (Thursday).
Champion, who was runnerup in the 2006 British Rally Championship, has competed on the last two African events, in 2013 and 2015, but will do more of the driving than on those occasions. He and car owner Richard Jackson are seeded seventh in their Tuthill-run Porsche 911.
“What you don’t anticipate before going to rally in Africa is the variation in roads you will come across,” said Champion. “We grew up watching images of the Safari and it looks soft and sandy, but we go into areas with proper flowing gravel roads with hairpins up and down mountain-sides. They’re proper drivers’ stages. You get everything from tight and twisty stages to flat-out across the plains on gravel tracks.”
Stig Blomqvist, winner of the last event in 2015, returns to reprise his role as favourite for the event, this time with 2016 Junior BRC frontrunner Mattias Adielsson as co-driver.
Other Brits in the 36-strong entry list include Ian Freestone and Phil Squires, who are seeded 12th in Freestone’s Ford Escort Mk1. Event regular Nick Mason is back with his Datsun 240Z and starts at 23, while Simon and John Connolly are 27th in another 911. Scott Armstrong is the final Brit on the list at 35 in a Datsun 160J.
The event runs in Tanzania and Kenya and finishes on December 1 after 2500 miles.