Pick up a dictionary and look up the word busy. If there’s no reference to Saturday’s midday Safari Rally service, it’s not a proper dictionary.
All of the teams were busy and all of them had their stories to tell – we’ll let Richard Millener tell M-Sport’s tale on Club DirtFish next week. But for now, how on earth did that trio of smoking i20 N Rally1s a) make it back to Naivasha and b) make it back out to the stages this afternoon?
Hyundai’s sporting director Andrew Wheatley picks up the story.
“You have these days with the Safari,” he said. “It’s a bit different. To see all of the drivers at lunchtime, first of all to see all of the cars get back here… I don’t know how those drivers managed to get cars that were hugely overheating and had damaged clutches back.
“There were times when they (the crews) phoned and said: ‘OK, that’s it we’ve stopped. We can’t carry on.’ And yet they all drove back in one after another and then the entire team, every single person in the team was doing something at lunchtime to try and get the cars out on time – as much as possible – but ready to compete ready to go and that part of the sport is fantastic.
“I wouldn’t want to do it every day, but it’s good to see it as it happens, occasionally.
“Between the stages, the drivers were coming up with their own tweaks to fill the gaps in the sides of the bumper. It’s been a bit MacGyver this weekend. But, you know, we have two cars for Adrien [Fourmaux] and Esapekka [Lappi] here [on Saturday evening]. It’s a shame for Thierry [Neuville], you know, one corner, one stone. But we have two cars here and Thierry will be ready to go again tomorrow.”
Wheatley admitted the addition of a mini compressor and jet-wash being installed in all of the cars was the reason they were sitting in an overnight second and fourth place for Fourmaux and Lappi respectively.
After suffering with the collection of mud in the radiator and cooling pack on Thursday, Hyundai sought ways to clear the mud out and allow the i20s to breathe again. But where did the jet-washes come from?
“That’s the power of the service park,” smiled Wheatley. “We have a lot of people in this place who work with a lot of other teams. We have a lot of contacts in the local area and we’re very thankful they were working today. They have probably kept us in the rally. The guys have done a great job and they’ll have stories to tell from this rally for many years to come.”
Sunday will decide if they have the ultimate story to tell. Fourmaux starts the final day of a gruelling Safari 1m25s off leader Takamoto Katsuta. Lappi, who did incur penalties for being late in and out of service at lunchtime, is fourth and six minutes off the front.
