Naivasha Service Park comes alive
Rally cars belonging to Kenyan drivers Hamza Anwar, Jeremiah Wahome and McRae Kimathi being assembled at the Naivasha Service Park ahead of this week’s World Rally Championship Safari Rally which starts on Thursday.
What you need to know:
- The Service Park Manager, Joe Muchiri, Thursday confirmed the arrival of the Hyundai Team kit
- More Kenyans are expected to earn from the foreign teams who have been limited on the type of cargo they should bring into a country hosting the WRC
- The service park set-up will follow a new model with manufacturers allocated locally sourced structures as a working space
The World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally Service Park in Naivasha has sprung to life as workers race against time to meet next Monday's 8am official opening time of the location in readiness for the start of the Safari Rally.
The Service Park Manager, Joe Muchiri, Thursday confirmed the arrival of the Hyundai Team kit. He also said that the M-Sport containers are in Suswa, while the one for Toyota is still on the high seas.
Muchiri is confident that the Service Park will be a fully-fledged command centre.
“The Media Centre is also sprouting and police officers are expected to be beefed up from today to control traffic at both entry points in Naivasha where roadside hawking has been banned,” he said.
More Kenyans are expected to earn from the foreign teams who have been limited on the type of cargo they should bring into a country hosting the WRC.
This follows the recommendations of the FIA Working Group on the WRC to make the series more affordable and attractive.
Established at the request of FIA President, Mohammed Ben Sulayem in December, and headed by FIA Deputy President for Sports, Robert Reid and World Motor Sport Council (WSMC) member David Richards, the Working Group comprises WMSC representatives Garry Connelly, Ronan Morgan, and Andrew Mallalieu, as well as FIA executives Andrew Wheatley and Xavier Mestelan Pinon.
The group has put forward objectives that prioritise plans for far greater focus on PR, Marketing, and Promotion of the Championship and set a framework for changes to the sporting and technical aspects of the WRC to be developed.
The service park set-up will follow a new model with manufacturers allocated locally sourced structures as a working space.
As well as saving costs and reducing the amount of transportation required, the move provides more flexibility, should the service park location change during an event. It also reduces the total area required for the service park by event organisers.
