"NYANZA KISUMU RALLY KNRC 3 - 1ST overall
At last, my run of 4 years bad luck is over ! (well at least temporarily !!)
Navigated by my brother Adrian, who had to be dragged away from a romantic
weekend with his girlfriend in Zanzibar to step in for Greg Forster, we
manage a clean sweep on the Kajulu Holdings Kisumu rally. After the first 2
stages we held an 11 sec margin over team mate Flash Tundo who in turn was
some 36sec ahead of Lee Rose and it looked as if we were going to have a
close duel all day. However, unfortunately a broken drive shat forced his
retirement on the 3rd stage and then we really only had Lee to offer any
serous threat. The car ran perfectly and we managed to win every stage of
the event ending up with an overall winning margin of over 4 mins ! This was
the second time in 40m years that a pair of brothers had won a rally in
Kenya and the first ever rally that Adrian had won.! Fingers crossed that
our new found luck holds..........."
|
Date
Immediate release - draft
KENYAN RALLY CHAMPION LOOKS TO GO ONE BETTER ON SAFARI CLASSIC
Alastair Cavenagh, 1999 Kenyan Rally Champion, will be wheeling out his
1971Mk. 1 Ford Escort this December to compete in the 2003 East African
Safari Rally. The car was originally bought to contest the 1998 Shield of
Africa Rally and Cavenagh netted a fine second overall that year with his
brother Adrian. This year however, the Welsh born Kenyan resident, and
co-driver Carl Tundo, are looking to improve on that result and go down in
history as the winners of this legendary event.
Based on the original idea of the 1953 Coronation Safari, the East African
Safari Rally returns in 2003 as the greatest classic car rally in the
world. The event, scheduled to run from 10-19 December, covers a mammoth
5,000 kilometres and will take the crews through some of the remotest and
most rugged landscapes in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The 2003 East
African Safari Rally marks the 50th anniversary of the original Coronation
Safari, a unique event run by enthusiasts to celebrate the Coronation of
Queen Elizabeth in 1953. In 1960 the event was renamed the East African
Safari Rally, running annually until 1972, and, in keeping with the sense
of history, only cars produced before 31 December 1971 are eligible to
compete in the 2003 event.
Thirty-nine-year-old Cavenagh bought his first rally car - a Datsun SSS -
in 1997 from Mike Kirkland, Event Director of the East African Safari
Rally. Despite early intentions of just competing in rallycross events in
Mombasa for fun, he soon became bitten by the rally bug and the tea trader
and exporter progressed to more modern machinery and outings on the world
stage. Having won the 1999 Kenyan Rally Championship in a Subaru Impreza,
Alastair swapped to a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer and competed in World
Championship rallies in Portugal, Greece and Great Britain in 2002, as
well as the Asia-Pacific Championship events in Canberra, Rotorua, New
Caledonia and Thailand. This year, the focus has again reverted to the
Kenyan National Rally Championship, in which Alastair is currently lying
third overall.
"The East African Safari Rally Escort is the same one Adrian and I
used for the Shield of Africa back in 1998 and Dave Kedward in Cheltenham,
England, will be preparing it for me again," commented Alastair.
"I'm confident this is the right car for such a tough event, strength
and endurance being all-important and we shall be hoping to improve on our
result in that first event!"
.
The East African Safari Rally is awash with legendary names, 1979 World
Rally Champion and four-time winner of the Safari Rally Bjorn Waldegard
topping the entry list in a Porsche 911. And Michele Mouton, who triggered
an earthquake in rallying in the mid-70's by becoming the first woman to
win a round of the World Rally Championship, returns to the driving seat
of another Ford Escort.
The event, which has been scheduled outside the international rally
calendar and during one of the most beautiful months in Africa, promises
to be one of the greatest classic car rallies of the modern era.
- ends -
For further information, please contact:
Alastair Cavenagh
E-mail: alastaircavenagh@hotmail.com
Tel: + 254733412352
or
Hayley Maxfield
Press Officer
East African Safari Rally
Tel/fax: +44 1483 459555
E-mail: hayleymaxfield@dial.pipex.com
Web: www.eastafricansafarirally.com
|
Alastair Cavenagh gets new car for Coast Equator Rally. The semi
active ex works group 'a' impreza that Alastair intends to use in next
year' Asia pacific Championship has been specially diverted to Mombasa
en route from the UK to New Zealand in order for Alastair to test it in
the Coast Equator Rally whcih is sponsored by his 2 main sponsors WEC
Lines and Minilite Wheels.
" I am hopeing that this car will not only prove to be fast but
also strong and relaibale therby giving me a good chance of scoring a
decent result on this, my home event", said Alastair who is
struggling to regain his fitness in time for the rally on 3-5 Oct after
sustaining a badly bruised kidney and 2 broken ribs after a motorcycle
accident 4 weeks ago." Hopefully by the time the rally comes around
they will have healed further and not be too much of a distraction,' he
added |
" Rally of Rotorua New Zealand - web site www.rallyrotorua.co.nz
Hectic times ahead for the Cavenagh brothers Alastair and Adrian who fly
out to New Zealand for round 3 of the Asia Pacific Championship next
Thursday 20th June to compete in the rally on 29/30th June and then to
get straight back on a plane to Kenya on Monday 1st July arriving just
in time to commence recce of the Safari Rally which starts on Saturday
the 6th !!!!! "
Alastair Cavenagh jets out today (25th June) to commence his campaign
in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship - the first round of which
takes place in Canberra , Australia on 4/5 May. Alastair will be
driving a Group n Mitsubishi Evo 6 - the same car in which he
contested the Rally of Great Britain in 1999 ! His regular co driver
for the APRC - and Ian Duncan's normal co driver in the Kenyan
National Rally Championship - Saleem Haji can not make the first round
due to business commitments here at home. Alastair will therefore be
co driven by a local New Zealand girl Emma Glimour who is an
accomplished co driver in the NZ championship.
"at least it will be abit more interesting if we end up breaking
down or crashing and having to wait to be rescued!!" joked
Alastair as he prepared to leave.
Emirates airlines have also stepped in with sponsorship to support
Alastair in his quest to compete in the Asian Pacific championship and
are providing him and his co- driver with free up graded business
class tickets. "this is a huge benefit and greatly appreciated
boost," said Alastair" given that we have to travel to Oz,
New Caledonia and New Zealand and back to Kenya each time within the
next 7 weeks - this sponsorship will be an enormous help and will
ensure that we arrive at the start of each event fresh and relatively
free from jet lag !!"
In addition to Emirates airlines , Alastair is also sponsored by his
WEC Lines and Minilite Wheels with support also from Pirelli.
and live stage times and updates will be available throughout the
event.
|
ALASTAIR CAVENAGH WILL COMPETE IN THE ASIAN PACIFIC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
IN 2002 -IN A GROUP A MITSUBISHI EVO.6
THE CHAMPIONSHIP COMPRISES OF SEVEN ROUNDS STARTING WITH AUSTRALIA ON
4/5 MAY THEN ON TO NEW CALEDONIA,NEW ZEALAND,CHINA,JAPAN, MALAYSIA AND
THAILAND.
ALASTAIR WILL BE CO DRIVEN BY SALEEM HAJI WHO NORMALLY NAVIGATES FOR IAN
DUNCAN . ASIDE FORM THE ASIAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIP ALASTAIR WILL ALSO
COMPETE IN SELECTED EVENTS IN KENYA - NAMELY KNRC ROUNDS ONE AND TWO
(THE MOMBASA COAST RALLY) AS WELL AS THE SAFARI AND EQUATOR RALLIES.
|
John Lloyd - MINILITE WHEELS - to sponsor
Cavenagh brothers in Rally of Thailand !!!!
John Lloyd the London city insurance magnate is generously sponsoring
Alastair and Adrian Cavenagh to participate in the last round of the Asian
Pacific Rally Championship - the rally of Thailand from 30/11-2/12 this
year.
Alastair who will be again reunited with his brother in the navigators
seat for the first time since the rally of Portugal in March will use John
Lloyds Mitsubishi group 'n' recce car for the event.Adrian is Lloyd's
usual navigator in the African Championship.
The car will be used by Lloyd for the reconnaisance and then rebuilt
before the event fro Alastair's use and will run on the super tough/super
light MINILITE WHEELS.
"obviously i'm really looking forward to the event and feel that if
everything holds together, we should have a reasonable chance of a good
result" said Alastair.
"We will be using Pirelli tyres coupled with the MINILITE wheels
which have proven a very successful combination here in the kenyan
championship although we will be on much softer compounds for Asia"
added Cavenagh.
The duo are scheduled to arrive to Thailand to commence recconnaisance on
Monday 26th November
Due to the foot and mouth disease crisis in the UK virtually all rallying
there has been cancelled for the forseeable future ! This obviously
effects the Mitsubishi Challenge Cup which Alastair had been sponsored by
MINILITE wheels to contest.
However, in view of this MINILITE wheels have extremely generously offered
to fully sponsor Alastair to enter and compete in the WRC ACROPOLIS RALLY
in Greece being held on 15-18th June 2001. Alastair will use a new version
6 Subaru Impreza which is currently being built for him in the Uk by
Martyn Spurrel of Autosportif. The car will be to almost identical
specification to the one that Alastair uses in the Kenyan National
Championship. Alastair will run in the MINILITE TEAM together with John
LLoyd (a regular Safari and African Championship contender) also in a
Subaru Impreza and his Kenyan service team headed by Jim Heather Hayes
will travel to Greece to provide joint service together with Autosportif.
"Having competed in the event last year and
furthermore having made our own pace notes, I feel confident about
competing this year. Hopefully, it will not be as hot as last year !"
says Alastair.
The temperatures last year reached over 70 degrees inside the cars and the
drivers were forced to wear fireproof overalls as well as underwear which
led to several crews suffering from heat exhaustion!!!
|
|
