London to Cape Town Day 6: More Scalps Claimed
by John Glynn – pics by Gerard Brown
Day 6 of the London CapeTown was always going to be tough. Here’s Hayden’s first text:
Brilliant morning. “Digger” the goat 912 clambered through the mud of the first World Cup section of the morning. Lots of cars were stuck and collected a lot of time penalties. In exchange for my early mistakes, those made by others today will close the gaps in the top 15. Rain, rain, rain all morning, not the weather we expected in Greece. Lack of heater is getting tedious, but just one more afternoon before we pick up a load of latitude on the ferry to Alexandria.
Our boys did not have it all their own way, but the Porsche 912 of Hayden Burvill and Alastair Caldwell is now up to 10th position overall and second in class. It’s about 1 hour 26 mins to the leaders when you even out the times. There’s still a long way to go and everything to play for on this event: HB and AC are not there to make up the numbers.
Solid competition going on in the Tuthill 911 cockpit too, as Joost and Jacques have moved up to 8th position overall and third in class. The 911 set FOUR fastest times on today’s six stages: a very impressive result and great validation of Tuthill air-cooled preparation. Gotta love this shot of wheel off and an empty wine bottle: Crew 45 seems to have a good balance of work and play!
Today was a battle. Snow and ice was a feature and not everyone was on the best tyres. There was also a very muddy section that bogged a few people down but the 912 kept on motoring.
Two more retirements: the French Morgan crew cracked their chassis after crashing on black ice, and the very smart Thistlethwayte 240Z went out, also due to a smash. A few people ran out of fuel, some complaints about lack of power to plough through this mud, but they’d better sort their strategies out: it’s just a taste of things to come. This is the rainy season on most of the East Coast of Africa, so count on more of the same down there.
Everyone who reads John Glynn’s Classic Porsche Blog regularly will know how bad Safari was. If it can catch someone like WaldegÃ¥rd out & almost cost them the rally and the first-ever Safari win for a Porsche 911, then what chance do mere mortals have when it all kicks off…
“Wonderful day, but we lost some time towing Alastair Caldwell out of the mud,†Francis Tuthill told the organisers. “We only just spotted him, as he was off route.†I only just spotted Fran in this pic: very back on the left. That is his navigator-seat HiLux in the background so I presume the 911 in front of it. Look at those mountains!
“I’ve been up my knees in mud,” said John Bayliss, after his Volvo went off. “The rear of the car is a little crumpled.†John was leading the 2-litre class on Day 4 and running inside the top ten, but is now down in 24th position. Shows how fast it can all change.
Hayden’s second text of the day tells how close they came to being another one of those stories:
What a day! Afternoon was going great: taking all sorts of time off our near competitors. Then in a flash, 20 metres down a wrong slot saw us over a gravel precipice. Impossible to turn around and drive out: we got rotated 90 degrees and started to work on a self-recovery. Right then, Francis showed up somehow (in his Toyota 4×4: JG), and we were able to get a tow rope and jerk the 912 back up the hill. Lost 8 minutes, but could have been much worse. Results after day 6 will be very interesting, as we have certainly made time on several cars ahead. Car is undamaged and still running hard after spending accumulated minutes on the 5800rpm limiter during stages today…
So: the boys are up to tenth. Now they have a day off on the ferry to Egypt, which is sailing into hurricane-force winds. We hope they all have a safe crossing and look forward to more news in a few days.
