Proper Safari as season showdown

It is time again for the Kenya Airways East African Safari (Classic) Rally. The Safari Rally lost its WRC spot at the end of 2002. The IRC event was held from 2007 till 2009 – well for political reasons and local situations it had to be cancelled in 2008 and was not very good in 2009 either, such it is dropped for the time being. These Safari Rallies however are a far cry from the real Safari Rally until WRC changes in the 1990s to a compact event. Safari is not about being compact and easy, it is a rally as rallies should be, a true advanture. Apart from compact clover leaf similar pattern, the other big WRC mistake was to move the Safari from its traditional Easter date to July. A Safari must be in rain season and that is either Easter (IRC date) or November-December (East African Classic date). The East African Safari started in 2003 as a bi-annual event and shows us every year to our great joy what a Safari Rally should be like. We covered every one of them so far.

 

The Kenya Airway East African Safari Rally is for Classic cars up to 1976. No 4x4 vehicles allowed. The start and finish of this event is always in Mombasa. In 2003 the rally went for the first time since decades into Uganda again. Most prominent starter was Michèle Mouton in a Ford Escort Mk1, but victory went to Kenyan hero Rob Collinge in his Datsun Fairlady 240Z.

 

In 2005 Rob Collinge in his Datsun 260Z won again, when the Classic event had its probably best entry to date. Juha Kankkunen had a troubled rally in a similar 260Z to Collinge’s and retired, Björn Waldegaard finished 7^th in a Porsche 911 and Stig Blomqvist came 2^nd behind Collinge in a Ford Escort Mk1. These 3 drivers combine 6 WRC titles! In 2005 the rally did the route vice versa, going first into Tanzania, mid rally halt in Nairobi, but then concentrating on Rift Valley and leaving out Uganda because of border problems.

 

2007 seemed to provide the most legendary route throughout the Safari history, although again no stages in Uganda. From Mombasa straight up to Nairobi, with the last third of the rally concentrating on Tanzania. In 2007 it was again 1984 WRChamp Stig Blomqvist in an Escort in 2^nd place, beaten by his team mate 1979 WRChamp and now 5-times Safari winner Björn Waldegaard. It was a historic win, Björn’s first Safari victory was exactly 30 years ago, also in a Ford Escort!

 

For 2009 the rally route will be 4500km long. To keep cost somehow under control in such a long event, the drivers and teams are not allowed to know the stages and exact route to avoid recceing. The organising team however has spent over 17000km of recceing to provide the drivers with pace notes and route notes. There will also be 2 organiser helicopters over the field for safety. There is a starting ceremony on the Indian Ocean Beach on Sunday, followed by a start ramp in Mombasa Centre and a 20km prologue stage. This prologue stage is one extremely good invention that also the IRC Rallye Monte Carlo organisers are doing in their 2010 event. In Mombasa the 20km stage is actually added to the overall competition time, but its main purpose is to identify the starting order for the proper rally start and its first proper leg on Monday. The Rally starts on Monday and finishes on Tuesday noon:

 

The 2nd leg (prologues officially counted by the organisers as day1) leads us into the Thaita Hills half way between Mombasa and Nairobi. Thaita Hills is an absolute legend for most proper style Rally fans. Well, every leg has an area like that. I keep it short now as we will in fact be reporting daily of the event and then explain more about the areas again, as we did in the last 3 editions of this event.

 

Then it is again the traditional (and 2007) route vice versa. But that is part of what the Safari always was, every edition a different, exciting layout! Not like modern WRC, let’s do a lap round the M25 and be back in daylight! Leg3 is the longest of the rally, crossing over to Tanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro, but also taking in the Usambara Mountains towards Tanga/Dar es Salaam/Coast. This is another break with the most legendary route. Most famous is a route layout that has the rally conclude with Tanzania and a blast along the coast into Kenya and Mombasa. This time it is Tanzania first and we go the hard way into Tanzania, from Thaita to Kilimanjaro!

 

Other than originally planned, we again have no Uganda in this year’s route. That is a shame, north of Lake Victoria to Kampala is one of the most breath taking rally route sceneries. But to compensate we make more heavy use of Tanzania and its black cotton stages. This means leg4 is also entirely in Tanzania, a loop around Arusha is followed by a rare rally area (first time used in 2007) around Lake Manyara, more towards the centre of Tanzania. Here the organisers promise they have found a sand road that climbs 900metres (2700feet) within 17km!

 

Leg5 is still in Tanzania, starting again on black cotton roads at Mount Kilimajaro, going into Kenya over a more traditionally used road north of the Kilimanjaro into flat, open, fast Masai Mara land. Actually the closing stages of the IRC Safari Rally 2007 & 2009 came near here, but the East African Safari Rally stays in Masai Mara, turns back nearer Kilimajaro for the rest day in Amboseli National Park. Just to show the different options of a route, in 2007 the Amboseli rest halt was followed by Thaita Hills, then Tanzania, then the coastal blast to the finish.

 

Not so this time. We are mid rally, have already had Thaita Hills, but nothing else in Kenya yet! Leg7 goes through Masai Mara, past Nairobi to Lake Naivasha and the first Rift Valley stages.

 

Leg8 will go all through the Rift Valley in its entire length and back again to Naivasha. It is strange this means we lose out on Mount Kenya this time, but Rift Valley, this area takes ages to describe in a preview, you must keep reading the day reports!

 

Leg9 will leave Naivasha, go through Nairobi for a mid day stop and down towards Mombasa, however before it sounds too easy, we go into the Thaita Hills once more.

 

Leg10 then is more Thaita Hills and back to Mombasa in a similar leg to the 1^st one.

 

See, start on Monday, back on Tuesday, hope WRC (and IRC) learns something from that!

 

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It is a loved event. We can’t do a preview without talking about the participants.

 

Strangely the entry list lacks the super stars somewhat. Stig Blomqvist is missing from this years event and also Juha Kankkunen and Michèle Mouton did not manage to repeat their previous visits. And even Björn Waldegaard is only a last minute deal, this however was not lack of enthusiasm, but Björn’s Porsche deal fell through the very last minute, only to now have located another Porsche 911! It is suspected to be a wet Safari and the rear engined Porsche would then have problems, good rear traction, but how to steer when the front swims. Anyway, less WRC stars than in previous years, but fans who followed the previous East African Safaris on our web site will find some interesting more variety in cars!

 

So far Datsun Fairlady 260Z and Ford Escort RS1600 seemed the strongest cars of the event. But if we ignore the chance of rain and look at the drivers, Porsche 911 should be the favourites for 2009. Not only does Björn Waldegaard drive a Porsche 911 (despite winning the last edition, seeded at N°30 due to his last minute car swap dramas), but so does the famous Kronos team, more known for their Peugeot IRC heroics! The Kronos Porsche of Jean-Pierre Modron (Kronos co-owner with Marc van Dalen) is seeded N°1, the 2^nd Kronos car is driven by Thierry de Latre. Another Porsche entry, also Belgian but not Kronos, is Gerard Marcy. Seem to be unknown names, but Marcy led every edition of the East African Safari at some point driving Ford Escorts! Hmm, maybe he is too wild. Maybe this time he will be well paced, because Marcy’s navigator on the 2009 Safari is none other than Stéphane Prevot! Another Porsche 911 entry is for Frédèric Dor, while we also find a couple of Porsche 924 on the entry list this time (but at the moment only one of them is thought to be able to start).

 

Front line names this year seem to be missing in Ford Escorts, even though this model took a convincing 1-2 on the last edition back in 2007. That swings the chances back to the classic coupé model Datsun 260Z. Andrew Siddall, just finishing 11^th on the real 1975 Roger Clark Works Escort in the Roger Albert Clark Rally, switches to a 240Z, as does Steve Perez (260Z), who did the RAC in a Stratos. Perez is also codriven by a celebrity, Staffan Parmander, formerly regular codriver of Toyota and Mitusbishi works driver Kenneth Eriksson! Other very strong 260Z entries include the Australians Graham Alexander/Ross Runnals and Kenyan residents Stefano Rocca/Piers Daykin and the well legendary Safari crew Jayant Shah/Lofty Drews. Well, on the WRC Safari Shah finished in the top5 in 1982 & 1983, while Drews finished on the podium no less than 8 times! Hardly a chance for overall victory, but certainly adding colour should be the two South African prepared Datsun Bluebird 180B of Roddy Sachs and Geoff Bell.

 

Other cars, alongside Marzio Kravos once again driving his Mercedes 450SLC and Ian Duncan’s (1994 Safari winner) Ford Mustang 5.0 V8, some interesting additions come from France. There is again a sole Peugeot 504 Coupé entry, but this time not with the Indian driver but French Jean-Louis Juchault. A new entry is Frédèric Daunat. If you haven’t heard his name before, well it is the car that is the attraction: He is entered with a Citroën DS21, but it is not just any Citroën DS but a short wheel base prototype “9280 WG 75” that as a Citroën works car competed the Morocco Rallye 1970 and the Portugal Rallye 1972! The car and entry is managed by former Citroën works driver Philippe Wambergue. Also with unknown names, but surely a huge surprise is the entry of 2 Renault Alpine A110, prepared and run by no other than former Formula 1 star Eric Comas!

 

Enjoy the rally, it will start when the IRC RAC Rally of Scotland finishes!