Safari Rally Kenya to run next week after an absence of 19 years from WRC (w/VIDEO)

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Safari Rally Kenya to run next week after an absence of 19 years from WRC (w/VIDEO)

Next week, the Safari Rally in Kenya takes place as the sixth round of the 2021 World Rally Championship (WRC). First held in 1953, the Safari Rally became part of the WRC calendar from the inaugural season of the championship in 1973 until 2002, after which it was excluded due to financial and organisational issues. It was to have been run again last year but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it from being run. Although excluded from being in the WRC, the Safari Rally remained part of the African Rally Championship.

The Safari Rally earned a reputation as the toughest event on the calendar, with a route covering enormous distances in tough conditions characterised by high temperatures and dust. Top factory teams sent drivers like Bjorn Waldegard, Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola, Michele Mouton and many others in legendary rallycars like the Audi Quattro, Toyota Celica TwinCam Turbo, Nissan 240 RS, Datsun Violet, with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo dominant in the 2000s.

For its return, the format of the event will be closer to a typical WRC round but teams and drivers can still expect an extremely demanding rally, with rough and rocky roads as well as the potential for unpredictable weather.

*The Group B Celica Twin Cam Turbo won the Safari Rally three years in a row.*

*The Mitsubishi Lancer was also well known in the earlier years of the Safari Rally and also in the 2000s when the EVO model won year after year.*

320 kms of stages over 3 days
Safari Rally Kenya 2021, as the event is officially known, will have 18 stages and a total of 320.19 competitive kilometres. The rally will start from the capital city of Nairobi with an opening Super Special Stage in nearby Kasarani. The rest of the rally takes place around Naivasha, with Friday featuring a trio of stages on the Navaisha lake’s southern shores to all be run twice. Saturday’s format is the same but takes place further north near Lake Elmenteita. A total of 5 stages brings the rally to a close on Sunday, with the ‘Hells Gate’ test to host the deciding Wolf Power Stage.

Current generation has no Safari experience
The current generation of WRC drivers have never had Safari Rally experience so it will be a new challenge for them, even for 7-time World Champion Sebastien Ogier who heads the standings after winning the Rally Italia Sardegna. It will also be the first time the Toyota Yaris WRC is entering an event in Africa.

“I believe this rally will be very different from anything I have done before. We’ve heard a lot that we are going to have to set our targets a little differently. The way we drive nowadays in the WRC is by really pushing the limits all of the time. But when we go to Kenya, it will be much more about trying to survive the rally without trouble. I think it can be interesting to have a challenge like this during the year. It has been hard to know what is the right way to prepare, so I think the drivers will probably have to adapt a bit during the rally, but the recce will certainly be important to understand what is ahead of us,” Ogier said.

Competing in the WRC2 category with a Hyundai R5 (below), Oliver Solberg (above right) is not only one of the youngest competitors in the event but his father, Petter (left) also took part in the Safari Rally on several occasions in earlier years.

Very young and very old drivers
For one of the entrants – Oliver Solberg – taking part in the rally will be following his father’s participation in 1999. Peter’s father, Petter Solberg, took part in a Ford Focus WRC and was one of the youngest in the manufacturers’ team line-up then – finishing a credible fifth. He later took part in the event with the Subaru team. At 19, Oliver is one of the youngest drivers taking part and will compete in the WRC2 class with a Hyundai R5.

There will also be a 91-year old driver from Poland – Sobieslow Zasada. Active in the sport in the 1960s and 1970, he finished second in the 1972 event (driving a Porsche 911S) and last took part in the Safari Rally in 1997. For this 2021 event, he will be in a Ford Fiesta Rally3 run by M-Sport Poland.

One of the participants taking part is Sobieslow Zasada from Poland (above left). He was 41 years old when he was second in the Safari Rally in 1971 in a Porsche 911S and this year, at the age of 91, he will be driving a Ford Fiesta WRC in the event.

The entry list has 58 drivers, 34 of them Kenyans. All the three factory teams in Rally1 cars – Toyota GAZOO Racing, Ford M-Sport, and Hyundai Motorsport – will be present, while there will be 11 of the second-tier Rally2 machines.

“It will be an interesting Safari Rally especially on how the old and the young will perform,” said Phineas Kimathi, WRC Safari Rally CEO, adding that Toyota Kenya has provided two Hilux trucks for use as Zero Vehicles which examine each stage before the competitors start.