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Kenya: Big Shots in Huge Entry List Shows Safari Rally Hasn’t Lost Its Spark

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4 years ago

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With two world champions, an array of international professional drivers, capped by a healthy national line up in the final competitors’ entry list of the World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally sinks in the realisation that after 19 years, the world still regards the Safari as the ultimate test for man and machine.

The Safari will make a majestic grand re-entry into the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) from June 21 when the Rally Week kicks off in Naivasha and the 58 drivers will begin reconnaissance or checking out the route.

This will be followed by a “shakedown” on Wednesday when the wheels of the first World Rally Car touch the Kenyan soil for the first time in nearly two decades.

The shakedown is a free press day and warm-up exercise for competitors to test their machines in rally speeds, and a feel of what to expect before the start of competition in what will be the most visually attractive WRC round, bringing in freshness and perception to help the championship breach the 1 billion cumulative annually global television viewership.

There was skepticism around the world of motorsport on whether the Safari would attract even 30 drivers.

But the 58 number surprised many considering WRC Portugal, despite being located in Europe and usually one of the more popular rallies in the world circuit, could manage only 56.

All the three manufacturer teams – Ford, Hyundai, and Toyota – will field 11 drivers in the Priority One list, supported by two cars in WR2 second category which has attracted a healthy field, all looking for valuable WRC points in this category.

Surprising, the WR2 has attracted the attention of 91-year-old Sobieslow Zasada, one of the icons of the original East African Safari Rally.

Aged old-wise, but young at heart and physically fit, Zasada has been in the world circuit long before most parents of the current crop of top drivers were born.

He made his debut in the 1969 Safari in a Porsche 911 S and left the scene a hero like no other in Safari Rally folklore with a second position in 1972, although his 1973 challenge came a cropper.

His legend will always supersede his persona as chronicled in one incident in 1972 Safari. In an all-out or for nothing battle with the eventual winner Hannu Mikkola, the Pole was always in touch, and as the cars were leaving Kampala he was only four minutes behind the leader.