New format for Kenyan Safari rally

Kenya’s premier annual motorsport event, the Safari Rally (10-12 June), adopts a new single-venue format this year.  

The event that was made famous for its spectacular open road format which originally toured Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, was for 29 years included in the WRC calendar until 2002.  

This year it be held on the extensive private Delamere Estate at Elementaita, 20km south of Nakuru, except for one 2km super special stage that will be run close to the centre of Nairobi.  

For many years there had been discontent within the FIA that such a major event should not hold its competitive closed road sections on private road land for safety reasons, and various stages on private land have been run in recent years.   

After the event disappeared from the WRC calendar it has been held as an IRC and also an ARC regional rally, but this year it qualifies solely for the national Kenya championship.  

These extensive areas are now largely being developed as a wildlife conservation area.  A national category Landrover entry by Geoff Mayes is being run as a project to help create awareness for the country’s tragic elephant poaching crisis.
 
- Martin Holmes

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