East Africa Safari Classic Rally kicks off

Sports Cabinet Secretary Dr Amina Mohamed flagged off the tenth edition of East Africa Safari Classic Rally on Thursday morning at the Kenya Wildlife Institute Service Park.

The event set to take place between the 10th and 19th of February 2022 will cover a total of 496km on Day 1 of which 242km will be competitive while the rest of the journey will be enduring.

Among those taking part include the reigning African Rally Champion Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo who is targeting a podium finish, Baldev ‘Boldy’ Chager, Ian Duncan and the defending champion Kris Rosenberger of Austria.

Tundo and his long term navigator Tim Jessop have indicated they will bag on their 21-year experience in rallying together to win the title.

“I’m tipping a Kenyan driver to win the classic rally, Jessop and I are focused to bring the cup home,” said Tundo during previous press conference.

Rosenberger was first off the ramp as the Rally revved off in Naivasha on Thursday morning with the 52-year-old admitting it’s not possible to win a consecutive double but will be out to finish the 5000km journey from Naivasha to Watamu.

“We are lucky to be the car number, for now, our target is to finish the event. We are not expecting anything this year even though we will still use the tactics that gave us victory in 2019,” he noted.

Last year, Kenya welcomed back the World Rally Championship (WRC) after a 19-year hiatus.

The event presented the destination with an opportunity to leverage on its global coverage to showcase Kenya’s preparedness. The event was televised to over 850 million viewers in its 14 rounds with a total of 13,452 broadcast hours projected.

The legendary East Africa Safari Classic Rally is a nine-day rally covering up to 5,000km across the region. Safari Classic rekindles the spirit of the original Safari Rally, which put East Africa on the motorsport map and earned a reputation as the world’s toughest rally.

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