Kenya Safari Rally Is Back With A Bang!

By Patrick Jaramogi

 

Nairobi Kenya

Seven Years (2013) ago Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta promised that he would  return, world’s best rally in the World, Kenya Safari Rally back into the global tournament.

This promised has yielded fruits, and on Friday Uhuru Kenyatta announced that the high adrenal sport would be held in Kenya next year 2020.

“Before my Administration assumed office in 2013, I made a promise to the people of Kenya, to return the Safari Rally back to the International Automobile Federation World Rally Championship family.  This process has taken us seven years.

“It is my pleasure today to announce to the people of Kenya and Africa that this process has been concluded and the Safari Rally has been included in the International Automobile Federation World Rally Championship 2020 Calendar, marking the return of the World Rally Championship to Kenya and Africa, after 18 years of waiting,” said Uhuru in State House release.

Uhuru thanked the President of the International Automobile Federation, Jean Todt, the World Rally Championship Promoter Oliver Ciesla, the Chairman of the Kenya Motorsports Federation, Kimathi and the Directors and Technical teams, for working with the Ministry of Sports to deliver the event that forms part of Kenya’s heritage.

Kenya Safari Rally CEO Phineas Kimathi said the Safari Rally will be held on 19th July, 2020.

Kimathi said Kenya had been readmitted to the World Rally Championship following the inclusion of Safari Rally in the WRC 2020 calendar.

The other two new entrants to return to the world stage include Rally New-Zealand and the season-closing Rally Japan.

More about Kenya Safari Rally

The Safari Rally is a rally race held in Kenya. It was first held from 27 May to 1 June 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika (Tanzania today), as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1960 it was renamed the East African Safari Rally and kept that name until 1974, when it became the Safari Rally. Widely regarded as one of the most popular African rallies, it’s set to make a return to the World Rally Championship in 2020 after a 17 year hiatus.

The older version of the Safari Rally was notorious for being by far the most difficult rally in the WRC championship to win: Some had said that winning this particular rally was the equivalent of winning three other rallies. The arduous conditions, such as the constantly changing weather and the very rough roads often rife with sharp rocks, made life very difficult for team personnel. Repairs were constantly having to be made to the cars which added to the elapsed time of the competitors. Frequently, all this work had to be done in intense heat and humidity.

The event adopted the special stage format in 1996. From that edition until 2002, it featured over 1000 km of timed stages, with stages well over 60 km long, unlike most rallies which had under 500 km of total timed distance. This meant that the winner’s total time was above 12 hours in 1996 and decreased to two seconds shy of 8 hours in 2002.

The event was part of the World Rally Championship calendar for many years until being excluded after 2002 due to the lack of finance and organisation in 2003. Since 2003 the event has been part of the African Rally Championship organised by the FIA.

Local driver Shekhar Mehta is the most successful in the event with five outright victories (1973, 1979–1982).