Cavenagh leads Day 1 of Kenya Airways EA Classic Rally 2015

Two-times Kenya Champion Alastair Cavenagh driving a Porsche 911 took the overnight lead by 2.12minutes over former world champion Stig Blomqvist as Day 1 of the Kenya Airways EA Classic Rally 2015 came to a dramatic end at Sarova Whitesands on Thursday.

Cavenagh had his Day 1 campaign effectively sewn-up when the initial leader Geoff Bell of South Africa had engine trouble in the second section around Gongoni in Kilifi County.

Porsche 911 dominated the top 6 positions on the day 1 leaderboard with Argentine Jorge Perez Companc racking up seventh place in a Ford Escort RS 1800.

Completing the awesome 1-2-3 Porsche 911 dash was Swede Richard Goransson who clocked 70:15minutes in the two stages run on day 1. Another Swede Joakim Roman came in fourth in a time of 71:47minutes.

But Cavenagh’s lead turned out to be a good consolation to his brother Adrian who had earlier rolled.

Cavenagh’s navigator Gavin Laurence was all smiles as classic cars pulled in to the Sarova night stop saying their lead after the opening two sections had come as a pleasant surprise.

“It was a very good day. We set off in some reasonable pace-I mean- we were looking after the car. We had no major problems. We only broke the fan-belt about 10kms before the end of section 2 but changed it straight after the TC. We are now going into tomorrow’s (today) leg unfortunately high up the field. We have always performed quite well in muddy conditions so it came as a surprise when we realised others got problems during the day,” Gavin said.

Day one’s itinerary featured two stages around Ndindiri, Kasava and Gongoni regions.  The competitive mileage was however reduced to 163.38kms following the cancellation of the 68.06km CS3 Sososbora-Kasava stage due to what organisers termed safety reasons.

DAY 1 ITINERARY (DAY2) first cars

06:58hrs-CS4: Kasava 3-Samburu 1 (103.94km)

09:09hrs- CS5: Mackonon Road- Teita Grid (82.25km)

14:52hrs: CS6:  Isineti 1-Erimeto (23.50km)

End of Day 1 Results (after CS2)

1. Alastair Cavenagh/Gavin Laurence (Porsche 911-Kenya) 96:19
2. Stig Blomqvist/ (Porsche 911-SWE) 98:31
3. Richard Goransson/Emil Axelsson (Porsche 911-Sweden) 102:45
4. Joakim Roman/Jorgen Fornander (Porsche 911-Sweden) 104:55
5. Gregoire De Mevius (Porsche 911-Belgium) 107:52
6. David von Schinkel/Per Bjorkman (Porsche 911-Sweden) 112:40
7. Jorge Perez Companc/Jose Volta (Ford Escort RS 1800-Argentina) 117:9
8. Onkar Rai/Baldev Chager (Porsche 911-KEN) 117:45
9. Francois Kicq/Andre Leyh (Porsche 911-Belgium) 120:45
10. Aslam Khan/Arshad Khan (Porsche 911-Kenya) 121:51
11. Matthais Kahle/Thomas Schunemann (Datsun 260Z-Germany) 122:50