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Day 8 – Sunday – Arusha to Arusha
VK Vodka Kick rally driver Steve
Perez has retired from the Kenya Airways East African Safari Rally after
crashing out on the penultimate day of the 4500km marathon.
Along with
co driver Mike Stuart, the
Chesterfield man in his Datsun
260Z was just 20km into the rally’s longest stage in
Tanzania when he
was temporarily blinded by a dust storm and hit a rut which caused the car to
nose-dive violently.
The ensuing impact caused Perez’s
head to hit the roll cage and although sustaining a serious neck injury, the
former British Historic and ANCRO National Champion was forced to drive the
remaining 140km, over one and a half hours, to the stage finish where he was
treated by Dr Dessie Nutt.
Eventually, Steve was transferred
to
Nairobi
Hospital
via the Flying Doctor where
he was assessed and two broken vertebrae were diagnosed which has necessitated
an overnight stay in hospital prior to another scan tomorrow to make sure there
are no further problems. Mike was uninjured in the incident.
Speaking from his hospital bed,
Steve said:
“I’m a bit battered and bruised
and feeling rather uncomfortable but I should be OK. I felt pins and needles
straight after the impact and when I got to the end, I collapsed and they ended
up sticking tubes and pipes into me. I have a neck brace on and they are going
to send me for an MRI scan tomorrow just to make sure that there is nothing else
wrong. I’d stupidly taken the HANS device off as it was proving cumbersome but
had I have been wearing it, I would have not suffered this injury. I’m being
well looked after and hopefully, will be out of hospital soon.”
Reflecting on his adventure over
the past eight days, which saw him up to fifth at one point, Steve commented:
“We gave it a good go and it
wasn’t to be but we’ve enjoyed ourselves immensely. I’ve not enjoyed it all, but
I have enjoyed 99% of the adventure and I’d definitely come back and do it
again. I’ve had text messages and e-mails from around the world over the past
week and I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone for their support and to
Mike and the rest of the team for doing such a great job. Now I need to
concentrate on getting fit in readiness for Rallye Sunseeker in February”
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