POWYS border rally star Dale Furniss is hoping for a strong end to the Rally of East Africa.

The Llanfyllin based co-driver, along with driver Evgeny Kireev, have been competing in the world famous endurance rally over the past week.

Furniss has past experience competing in the British Rally Championships while also competing across Europe.

This year represents a second run on the east African sands having competed alongside Osian Pryce in 2019 when they ended ninth.

The duo, driving a Porsche 911, were seventh on the leaderboard after 13 stages as the Advertizer went to press on Tuesday.

The rally covers almost 5,000km across Kenya, starting in Naivasha and ending in Watamu.

Furniss said: “It’s been a great drive so far on his first ever rally but we still need to be clever to survive these next few days.”

The rally has traversed Kenya, from Naivasha to Nakuru, Nanyuki and then on to Amboseli.

It restarts early tomorrow in Amboseli before progressing to the Taita Hills and Watamu.

It is turning into a battle of brands and nationalities, effectively the Porsches against ‘the rest’ and the Kenyans against the internationals.

The balance of power has kept shifting with the international entries seizing many stage wins, notably Ken Block with five out of eleven, but the Kenyans are showing greater consistency, with Baldev Chager being the leader for the longest time.

However, Patrik Sandell from Sweden stole the lead on the curtailed SS11 to restart the rally tomorrow from the front.

The rally is famous among drivers and crews and regarded among the toughest in the world for its long stages and unforgiving terrain.

Following the independence of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the rally continued to cross between borders, with event start and finish points regularly rotated.

Despite growing international interest and entries the event remained dominated by local drivers, showing both their knowledge of the terrain but also their driving skills.

It was dropped by the World Rally Championship in 2003 but the reinvention of the Safari Rally for classic cars, returned East Africa to the international motor sport scene and recreating the spirit of rallying from its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s.