Ti Motorsport

It's All Over Now

With the event finished and the results declared, it was prize giving time. To say that it was let down by the service, would be a massive understatement. It was such a shame, after a really great event and all the effort put in by the organising crew. 

In the end, we gave up and retired to our own private bar. At least we were a lot better off than we would have been, if the service had been anything like.

Next morning and it was time for Anthony to take us back to Nairobi. A little bit of sorting out to look forward to and a bit of Kenyan courier service to enjoy. Twelve tyres, two bikes. Having had a full size Argoshield bottle delivered on a bike, I was interested to see how they would load the tyres.

Easy really, 4 on the back and two on the sides.

Locked and loaded our riders headed out on their delivery. They must have thought the journey might be a touch hazardous as they actually put helmets on.

Entertainment over, it was time for us to repack all of our spares and get ready to return home.

Quite tiring it seems.

Our Little Spa Break

Sunday gave us our first taste of 'Leisure Rallying', it seemed to set a pattern for our time there.

We had a look at Jasneil's Golf, which now had had replacement rear shockers fitted but had now grenade-ed the gearbox.

The Ferrari was getting a little TLC having broken a drive shaft.

The local wildlife was also taking in the sights

We had a look around and found a group of mechanics trying to change one of their truck tyres.Lots of helpful comments from the spectators.Quite a nice truck, obviously designed to fit into a container.

The front end of the Ferrari had now come in for a bit of attention and there is always work to do on an Escort.

 

It was all very tiring. Back to the pool, past those 911's, just waiting to tame the Kenyan stages.

A little detour.

While the rally made it's way the the Bogoria Spa, the new rally HQ, the Escort got a wash and we had a group photo taken.

Then it was time for our convoy to leave for Nairobi.

After an attempt to get Nick an early flight [no go there] we left for our 3 day Spa visit.

As this was Jonathan's first visit to Kenya, we stopped on the top road, overlooking The Great Rift Valley, for a photo opportunity.

I had seen ads in various places, for 'The Prophet', but hadn't paid a lot of attention to them. Had I have done so, I might have suggested we avoid the area around the stadium in Naivasha, as that was where his meeting was. There were thousands of people coming out, blocking the road and making our already slow progress, even slower.

It was also tonking down with rain, so all those wearing the finest clothes, were on a bit of a hiding for nothing. It was about 8 o'clock when we booked in.

Lots of the competitors, particularly the early runners, were already in the restaurant, a lot however, were still out servicing their cars. 

For us, it was time to eat.

A new plan in the making

Andrew and Oscar had managed to get the Escort back together in time to get it into parc ferme. So while everyone else went off, Nick, Jonathan and I stayed behind. We would get the car washed and cleaned, our wheels changed, parts sorted and be ready to drive back to Nairobi. As we had already paid for food and accommodation at the Lake Bogoria Spa Resort, we had decided to drop the car back, then get our tame taxi driver, Anthony, to take us to the resort.

 

Nick and Jonathan took on supervisory duties at the car wash. As the top of my strut had been bent, when the ball joint broke, I wanted to bring the Jumbos back to the UK. With this in mind,
we opted to do the job now, rather than rushing it after we returned to Nairobi. 

Once again, we were inundated with visitors. Everyone wanted to chat, what happened, why are we not carrying on etc, etc. So as usual, everything took twice as long as necessary. Fun though.

At some point, our new plan got changed. The Escort had stopped again. Same problem, this time, they had managed 11 kilometres. At the service area, Andrew, Oscar and Nandi were hard at it, trying to find out why it had happened again. 

We learn't that Jasneil had broken both rear shocks and to get the Golf into parc ferme the previous night, they had used some angle iron and bolted it solidly together. That accounted for the snails pace, the ride, just a touch hard.

Back in the service area, it seems that everyone was bringing parts, offering advice and trying to help keep Gogi in the event. Sadly, all to no avail. The Escort joined the Peugeot at the hotel. Now we would return both cars to Nairobi tomorrow [Saturday].

Time to retire to the bar.

For some it had been a long day.

 

 

Withdrawal

The first car was due to leave the start, at 8.00 a.m. and with the cars running at 2 minute intervals, Nick and I had plenty of time to take in the atmosphere. The regional governor had been roped in to flag the cars away.

Our time finally came and we were flagged away. 

It had been drummed into us at the drivers briefing, that the speed limit through the Ol Pejeta Conservancy was 40 kph. With the GPS tracker fitted, the organisers were able to monitor our speeds. Sadly, Nicks 'sun shield' over the trip, meant that I was unable to see our speed.[the car speedo still not working]. The view as we drove out towards the start of the 140 kilometre first stage was stunning.

Being a 5 day event, Nick and I were trying to judge the pace. Not too quick, not too slow, but we still got caught out a few times in some of the very rough sections of the stage.

Just over a kilometre into the stage, we passed Gogi and Dipps, parked up on the side of the stage.

Lots of the stage was fast and flowing and then there would be a mega rough section. Crawling speed really. I started to see some hanging dust, which should have perhaps told me, we were going a bit too quickly. Then, I saw headlights in the mirrors. Jasneil, in his ex works Golf, had taken 4 minutes out of us. Luckily, there was enough space to let him by without costing either of us any time. Considering the time he had taken out of us, we were able to stay with him. The hanging dust, that I had seen earlier, turned out to be our 4 minute man, the VW Beetle of Mitraj Lochab and Armadip Virdi. A little further on and parked up on the left of one of the rockier sections, was Jasneil.

At 87 k, an innocuous little rock brought our progress to a grinding halt. The drivers side bottom ball joint had cried enough. 

Sadly for us, we weren't carrying a spare and it couldn't have happened at a worse place. We were as far away from help as possible. A little further and we would have started to head back towards the service point. 

We now had a 3 hour wait for the chase crew to get to us. There was plenty to keep us occupied. The head of the reserve through which the stage ran, payed us a visit. He was accompanied by a film crew from the New York Times, who were doing a documentary on Conservancy.!!!!

We then had  guards looking after us, more for the animals, than the people. Plenty of visitors as well.

Eventually, our crew arrived and repairs started.

When we took the wheel off, we spotted a split in the rim. The tyre however was still inflated.

With the car now repaired, we had the return journey back to service. For the return trip, Jonathan came in the car with me, while Nick joined Jazzy and Dipps.

We hadn't gone very far, when we had a puncture. A large chunk of the rim had opted out. A slight misunderstanding, had us fit the original split rim. By the time we were back at the start of the stage, it was dark. The wildlife drive had been great, albeit a bit stressful. The lights on a 1972 car not being that great. From the stage start to the service area, was another 40 minutes drive.

I had began to formulate a plan for the following days stages and just needed to run it past Nick, before putting it into operation. The car needed to be in Parc Ferme by 11 pm, if we were to start the next day. That gave us a little shy of 90 minutes to work on the car.

And that's when Nick dropped a little bombshell. In the course of the return journey, he had overheard Dipps and Jazzy talking. If we broke down tomorrow, they wouldn't come out to us. 

A little confrontation followed, effectively confirming what Nick had heard.

As we couldn't count on cover, I opted to withdraw our entry, saving any further disruption.

Meanwhile, next door, the Escort was getting some TLC. The flywheel bolts had sheared  and getting the broken threads out was proving problematic. As we could be of no help and I was very slightly hopping mad, Nick and I left for the hotel. 

Not very far down the road, we came across a Golf, crawling along, and I mean CRAWLING, followed by it's chase car. Jasneil was heading for parc ferme.

Nick and I retired to the bar. 

 

Ol Pejata

For the first few days, rally HQ would be at the Sweetwaters camp, in the Ol Pejata conservancy. As we had to sign on and collect our rally plates, before we could go to scrutineering, we made our way there after breakfast. As it turned out, we were a touch early, the secretary of the meeting hadn't arrived, so all we could do, was collect the rally plates and pay for the tracker.

On our way out, we caught sight of a Rhino with a baby in tow, making the journey worthwhile. Back in Nanyuki, it was sticker time. As there was plenty to do, I left Nick to sort the 504.

After lunch, Nick and I decided not to wait for the Escort and headed back to rally HQ. As luck would have it, the tracker fitting bay was empty when we arrived. Too good an opportunity to miss.

With the tracker fitted, we found the scrutineering bay empty as well. Time to move next door. Everything was fine until I had to put the reversing lights on, or not. That was a 1000 ksh fine. easier than going back & fixing it.

Time to sign on. This time everyone was in place and our paper work was quickly sorted. With our preparations complete, we put  the car into parc ferme. Now we had to wait for the drivers briefing.

What an epic that was. An hour and a half. according to Nick, the longest he had ever attended.

 

Nairobi to Nanyuki

Our original plan had been for the MRT pickup, with Nandi and driver David, to come to Bhadur's on Tuesday morning, collect the fuel and make their way to Nanyuki with the rest of us. Late on Monday afternoon, we had a phone call from Nandi, saying that they had to go the South African Embassy the following morning, to apply for visas [Manvir;s next African Championship round is based there] and would see us at the hotel, late on in the afternoon. 

Not the end of the world, but it did upset our fuel plans a little. They were bringing another 5 empty, 50 litre drums, which we would have filled before we left, just in case there was no V Power in Nanyuki. It also meant, that we needed to load the second 200 litre drum, with the remaining Avgas, into the truck, instead of decanting it into the drums and leaving the empty drum behind. 

By 11 o'clock on Tuesday morning, even Bhadur was getting anxious about our paperwork. The fuel had been sorted, tyres loaded and everyone and his dog had arrived.

Nick just read.

A few minutes before 12, we finally got all the necessary paperwork. 

A massive sigh from all concerned.  Time for lunch and then the 200k shakedown.

As the first stage was going to be 140 k long, we brimmed both cars, the thinking being, to see how much we used getting to the hotel. We knew it would be less than on the stage but it would give us an idea if either of us might run into trouble, consumption wise.

Our truck had gone on ahead, our little convoy headed into the Nairobi traffic, after a now, very.relaxed lunch. Back in the UK, I had put all the major locations into TomTom, on my phone, so although we managed to stay together, there would have been no problem, had we got separated.

It took somewhat longer than estimated, having at one point lost Gogi [the windscreen wiper blade came off apparently] and there being quite heavy traffic, presumably getting away for the Easter break. We eventually pulled into the Maxoil Hotel. Apart from the little wiper issue, both cars had been fine, Nick, being used to super speedy Caterhams and the like, found the Peugeots long gearing, a trifle lacklustre.

Time for a bite to eat and a beer.

 

 

All in the planning

Our preparations for the event, were not without their setbacks. The Nissan pick up, which we had been assured was repaired and good to go, was anything but. That meant we were one chase vehicle down. It also meant, that we would be relying on the same vehicle and driver as last time. Something which I had expressly refused to contemplate, when we planned the event. 

In the original plan, Jonathan and Oscar, would chase for Nick and I. Gogi would be looked after by Andy and Nandi. We would have Bhadur's pick up, Gogi's pick up, the MRT pick up and the main service truck. 

DIDN'T HAPPEN !!!!!

On a slightly different tack, all three of our vehicles [the Pug, the Escort and the Pick up] were without their carnets, which meant no Foreign Vehicle Licence. Without the Licence we wouldn't be able to start the event and without the carnets, we would risk having the cars impounded.

I had prepared a provisional movement schedule long before we left the UK. All of our plans had been made around it, hotels booked around it, so I was really surprised, when Dipps suggested that I had got it wrong and we weren't due to leave until Wednesday, NOT the Tuesday that I had arranged.

Time to check the ASR's on the web site. I was right, but then Dipps looked at his download and he was right as well, just that my right was the current ASR's and his were the early ones, before the changes.

So panic over, we would leave on Tuesday, as long as we had paper work.

While Nick did a little last minute work on the 504, we were loading the service truck. Last time we did the event, we needed a little welding repair and had to go on the scrounge to get it done. This time, we took Dipps' generator and our own mig, together with a roll of gasless mig wire. Lucky we did, as it turned out.

Learning from last time, we had separated the spares, in cages in the main truck. Peugeot bits in one, Escort in the other. Items common to both, in a third cage. There was still room for the tyres and  fuel drums. We had filled one of the empty avgas cans with water, to feed the pressure washer.

By Monday evening, we were just about ready to go, but still had no paperwork.

To say that I was little stressed, would be a massive understatement.

 

The very, very small print.

As the organisers of the Topfry Classic Safari Rally have told us that we not only have to sign up to 'The Golden Hour' medical scheme, [the same as we had on the last Rift Classic] but show that we have repatriation medical cover as well, I thought I would just check the small print on my travel cover. 

I went through the exclusions and motorsport was not one of them, but just to be doubly sure, I rang the company. A very helpful young lady checked through the policy and agreed with me, but just to cover herself [the call was being recorded], she put me on hold and left me hanging.

It seemed like an age later, she was back. Sorry, you wouldn't be covered.

While I am glad I made the call, what chance do you have when even the small print doesn't tell the whole story.

I feel a  little last minute dot com stress  coming on.

On a more positive note, our specially made Mintex competition rear brake pads have arrived and our new Carnet has been posted out..

Following the Press Launch at The Cedar Mall in Nanyuki, we made it into the local rag. Small and at the bottom it may be but it's sometimes nice to see your name in print.

 

 

  

 The car is getting it's new livery at our base in Nairobi. It should be ready for us to finish off the last few jobs next week, before taking in a test session, when co-driver, Nick Starkey arrives.