The FIA have just announced that the Safari Rally will re-join the elite group of events that make up the World Rally Championship. The event will be run in July 2020 marking a long awaited return to its rightful place among the cream of motorsport events.
Kenya’s premier sporting event lost WRC status for a variety of reasons, most importantly safety. Competing at speeds on open roads became too dangerous for all and in 2002 it was run as a WRC event for the last time.
The FIA agreed to a trial event, run on private ranches and conservancies, and in July the 2019 Safari Rally came away with glowing reports for safety, efficiency and organisation. Kenya had won the place back and will host a welcome but markedly different type of Safari Rally. Kudos to the dedication of the organising team and President Uhuru Kenyatta who pulled out all the stops to make this happen.
“The Worlds Toughest Rally” 
was run over 5 days, much of it at night, and 3000 (read three thousand!) kilometres, earning the reputation as the most gruelling event on a packed annual calendar. Spectators worldwide loved it. Drivers loved and hated it in equal measure often at the same time. Some contenders were openly hostile to the event, but had to compete for the world championship points.
For many ‘privateers’ just getting to the finish ramp felt like an outright win, a very coveted prize among manufacturers ‘works’ teams, as a Safari win boosted sales worldwide. For private entrants without the big budgets of ‘works’ teams, a finishers badge was a winners trophy. I was an entrant twice and never made it past the first night both times, secretly relieved that the real pain was over before it started. That’s a different tale.
Consider this, it is the end of the first night and after 12 hours driving and an 8 hour rest the lead car would be starting “Leg 2” at 12:00 PM on Saturday…while the last car on the road just beat time bar at about 0900 after almost 16 hours of driving and will get a maximum 4 hours rest. The ‘short’ and very fast Leg 1 having achieved it’s aim – survival of the fittest..
Saturday and Leg 2, longer, rougher, hotter and designed to cause more pain was usually run in daylight and the spectators really got involved. Very long, very fast sections.
Complete this day and you still faced Leg 3, late night start for an early morning finish, the legendary ‘sting in the tail’ devised by the much loved and oft cursed Mike Doughty. Knackered drivers, a car being held together with tank tape and rope. If you were still going on Sunday night, not reaching the ramp was going to be a very bitter pill. Tactics, as much as sheer speed and skill were essential to triumph and Doughty was a master of the game, himself a record 5 time winner in the hot seat of Shekkar Mehta’s legendary Datsuns and Nissans. He knew how to make it hurt.
It was long.It was tough. It was awesome.
Throughout the ‘Marlboro years’ I was one among that elite group of people organising and managing this historic event, from route opening, running time controls, time keeping and scoring, managing service teams or planning the route notes and working with radio comms teams, being in ‘mud cars’ all in shifts over 5 days. Non stop, grabbing 3 hours sleep and moving to your next assigned duties. The skills and endurance required to keep this event running like clockwork down to the minute were nothing short of phenomenal. And it took an army of dedicated volunteers to do it. The unsung heroes.
An entire country came to a stop over Easter weekend when between 60 – 90 starters would battle the clock. There was no Internet or Google so fans were glued to radios, TV sets, newspapers, lining the route in places you had never heard of, at an hour when only ghosts should be out and about. This event gripped everyone with a fervour that you carried for years. “Safari Fever” it was called. There was no other news over Easter. Stories are still told today, every year a different story that over time just became one big tale. The mud, the dust, the sweat and tears, the heat, the cold, the waiting.
The tension.
Delicious.
2020 will see the Safari Rally return in the current WRC format of sprint events. Now over 3 days not the 5 day marathon and a maximum competitive distance of 400 kilometres. With a July date, not the traditional Easter weekend. Short, closed, daylight stages (maximum stage distance may be 20-30 km), driven at speeds Formula One cars would be proud of . Spectator view points will be strictly controlled access. We in Kenya, will see for the first time WRC spec rally cars that use F1 aerodynamics to keep them on the road. We will hear of new drivers and hopefully have local heroes.
“The World’s Toughest Rally” will have morphed out of necessity and the legend returns.
Will the country be riveted?
September 30, 2019
Last Updated on October 12, 2019
