By 
GORDON Noble’s first taste of the epic MRF Tyres East African Safari Classic Rally is one that will live long in the memory.
The world-renowned Omagh co-driver, enjoyed more ups and downs than he would have hoped for during the nine-days of action that saw crews traverse over 3000 kilometres of east Africa where he had to not only battle against the weather and conditions, avoid Giraffes and Zebras, manage an unexpected driver change and he received a tow from a German with a very famous lineage, who had a former Top Gear presenter on the notes!
Initially, Noble, who just a week earlier had completed the challenging five-day Roger Albert Clark Rally in second place alongside Paul Barrett, was to take on the entire East African Classic alongside South African driver, Joey Ghose, but when he was struck down by debilitating dehydration after the first two days, 18-year-old Charlie Tuthill, son of the team’s owner Richard, jumped into the driver’s seat of the Porsche 911, which was one of 22 cars on the event being run by the Tuthill team.
“The original driver, Joey, got dehydrated,” Noble explained. “He got dehydrated very badly on the second day and I was attempting to make him drink during the stages, but he was really, really bad and the doctors advised him at the end of the second day that he should be resting. He took the third day off thinking he was going to recover and come back but it became clear he wasn’t going to so that’s when young Charlie Tuthill would drive.
“I only physically met him on the morning he was going to first drive, so it was a bit of going into the unknown, but it turned out he’s a very good driver, which made things a lot easier.”
With Tuthill now behind the wheel, using his Baja racing experience on the dusty, bumpy terrain, he and Noble set several fastest stage times, to both of their delight and after being rescued by the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche – creator of the original VW Beetle and the famous car marque that bears his surname – and co-driver, Chris Harris, formerly of Top Gear, they disappointingly had to retire one day from the end. And while a little disappointed not to reach the finish, Noble admits he thoroughly enjoyed the experience as a whole.
“It worked out really good [with Tuthill driving], we had a series of fastest times, which was the satisfying bit and he achieved what he wanted out of it,” Noble added.
“We didn’t finish, we succumbed to a mechanical failure when we broke the gearbox of the car on the evening of the eighth day. We were half stranded but a guy called Ferdi Porsche, the grandson of the original Mr Porsche, was driving in the rally and Chris Harris, were coming behind and they had actually been off the road and got going again, but they actually towed us back to the finish. But the team had decided we had done enough driving, that Charlie had achieved what he wanted to achieve and we didn’t get going again on the final day.
“The experience as a whole was fantastic, you combine the rally, the wildlife and the adventure, all of those things, you couldn’t say anything bad about it. I’m pleased to have done it. It was a super adventure, I must say.”
