“Patience and perseverance are two essential ingredients for success in this gruelling challenging event” John Coyne on the Classic East African Safari Rally in his own words!

John Coyne on the Classic East African Safari Rally in his own words!

“Patience and perseverance are two essential ingredients for success in this gruelling challenging event” John Coyne on the Classic East African Safari Rally in his own words!

What an amazing adventure!

Started with seat fitting and controls familiarization then on to a test on Tuesday afternoon. Many firsts – the first time in this car, first time driving with Josh co-driving, first time driving for Josh, first taste of African terrain, first time calling directions and hazards from a roadbook  and not notes. A nice stage with a little bit of everything in it.

All went well and we soon settled in. Up early the next morning to beat the heat and spent a few hours learning how to change wheels, driveshaft, fan belt, etc. Then off again to the test stage for more familiarization mileage.

Later in the afternoon, we ventured an hour out the road to a piece of road the team had found which was super rough and rutted from the rains and got our first view of how difficult this rally might be.

A day to chill and then on to the prologue. Josh was truly impressive here, focused on nailing the numerous junctions and taking it easy over the numerous big bumps, steps, ditches and jumps to go fastest. This allowed us to choose our position of fourth on the road for the rally proper.

Up early for the six o’clock start (a feature of the rally) and into the first stage of the rally, a whopping 120km. I had decided to have Josh drive for the first day and concentrated on trying to call the roadbook as best I could. Despite a few wrong slots, we managed a solid second fastest here. The stage didn’t seem so long as we were both super busy throughout. In the following stage, we suffered two punctures due to tire delamination which we stopped and changed. On stage three we hit an un-noted big hole broke the steering rack and were forced out for the day. We spent four hours out in the bush waiting for the stage to finish to allow our service crew to come to get us. An opportunity to meet the locals and learn about subsistence farming! Happy charming people who seemed to materialize out of nowhere as soon as we stopped. Surprisingly we weren’t last, finishing leg 1 in 46th position.

The next day was again dogged by punctures and a stage cancel due to weather. We worked our way up nine places to 37th after leg 2. By now I was beginning to get more comfortable calling the roads and looking forward to day three.

However, when I got up the next morning I found I had lost my balance and couldn’t stand or walk without holding onto something. The Safari regulations allow for one replacement of one crew member during the rally on medical grounds. Having been checked out by the event medical team I reluctantly subbed Eoin Treacy into the codriver seat and assumed a spectating role for the remainder of the rally.

Huge disappointment not to be fit to continue but a great experience working with the team and Josh and Eoin as they overcame all the event could throw at them to bring the car home safely to the finish of what was deemed to be the toughest Safari in many many years. Josh’s three fastest stage times showed what might have been without our tire and mechanical issues and the time lost on stage waiting for a bogged-down truck to be pulled out and queuing for a tow at a number of locations where other competitors were stuck and blocking the route.

All in all an amazing adventure that has taught us a lot about reading the road and driving in truly adverse conditions. Patience and perseverance are two essential ingredients for success in this gruelling challenging event.

I’m glad I did it and enjoyed every minute.

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