Sweden's Stig Blomqvist maintained his overall lead with one day to go in the ongoing East African Classic Safari Rally, despite second placed Austrian Kris Rosenberger putting up a spirited fight at the top of the table after day eight of the competition.

Navigated by Jorgen Fornander in their Tuthill Porsche 911, Blomqvist won the second stage 58.30Km Estate/Kileva but lost time in the third stage 75Km Maungu/MC road after the steering wheel dumper broke 50Km into the section. He is leading the 16 competitors with a time of 12.11.43.

Rosenberger navigated by Nicola Bleicher in a Tuthill Porsche 911, has been at the helm severally but is now lying six seconds behind the former WRC 1984 champion Blomqvist with a time of 12:11:49.8.

Kenya's best placed top crew of Kabras Racing Team's Onkar Rai and Drew Sturrock in a Porsche 911 are lying third overall with a time of 12:42:36.

Onkar however had a challenging day after his Porsche 911 clutch slipped several times and also broke suspension in stage two. In the same stage, they had to stop 3 times because of animal traffic.

His brother, Tejveer navigated by Gavin Laurence moved up two places on the leaderboard and is lying eighth, with Aslam Khan who was time barred after breaking the steering arm of his Porsche 911, finishing the day in 10th place.

Baldev Chager won the first stage of the day, the CS19 40Km Sagala to Kirumbi stage, posting the fastest time of 23.91 beating Italian Euginio Amos who won the second stage of the day.

Kenyan ace driver Ian Duncan navigated by Anthony Nielsen is placed 15th overall after struggling with his Rover Vitesse experiencing mechanical problems but managed to repair the problem and resumed the rally.

(Visited 5 times, 5 visits today)

Copyright Capital FM. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source News Service English