Battered Ford First Home In Tough Rally

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31655, 16 April 1968, Page 24

Battered Ford First Home In Tough Rally

IN.Z.P A -Reuter—Copyright) NAIROBI, April 15. Two Kenyan drivers, P. Huth and I. Grant, in a Ford Lotus Cortina, were the first to finish in the sixteenth East African Safari motor rally yesterday afternoon and appeared likely to be confirmed the winners.

They finished in what a Dar Es Salam official had described as “a very sick car” —no clutch, a leaky petrol tank and a windscreen tied on with a bit of rope. The rally was the toughest yet. Only eight battered cars of the 92 starters ploughed through the muddy roads of Northern Tanzania yesterday on the last leg from Dar Es Salaam. At Korogwe, 350 miles from Nairobi, the Ford drivers, who were competing privately, had lost 589 penalty points. Behind them were the petrol-injection Peugeot 404 s of Z. Nowicki and P. Cliff of Kenya with C6O points and B. Shankland and C. Rothwell of Tanzania with 699 points. The Peugeots seemed assured of beating the Datsuns for the manufacturers’ team prize. J. Singh and B. Smith had dropped from the lead after changing the gearbox in their Datsun Hl3O yesterday and had 738 points at Korogwe. The only women left, Lucille Cardwell and Geraldine Davies, of Kenya, brought up the rear in the other Datsun (1101 points).