Waldergaard happy to be back

Former Safari Rally champion and world rally icon Bjorn Waldegaard is happy to be in Kenya for the 2009 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally after almost missing out of the competition for financial reasons.

The car-less 66-year-old Swede said he was surprised when he got an offer from Igbal Sagoo to drive his Porsche in the Classic.

“I was seated at home feeling jealous of those going to Kenya and not me. It was very demoralising considering how much I loved doing the Safari rallies and coming to Kenya,’’ said Waldegaard while taking a rest at the Whitesands Hotel in Mombasa on Friday.

“I had neither heard of him nor seen him but the offer was one that I could not turn down. It came out of nowhere and it made me really excited to start thinking of the Safari Rally.’’

Sagoo was born in Kenya 47 years ago before moving to USA. He made his rally debut in the 2003 edition as a co-driver to Hardev Singh Sira in a Peugeot 504 before entering the 2007 event as a driver in a Porsche 911.

He now managed to tempt Waldegaard back into the Classic Rally with a personal sponsorship deal.

Waldegaard says his aim is to win the rally once again but he is wary of drivers like Ian Duncan and Gerard Marcy.

“Marcy was very quick in 2007 and Duncan seems to have prepared his Mustang better this time round. They are both very fast drivers and could cause a surprise.’’

Waldegaard is one of the best known former Safari Rally drivers having won the Kenyan event on four different occasions. He is the defending East African Classic Safari Rally Champion.

When asked about his feelings if the current rains continued to hit part of the route, he said “it would be very difficult for an old man like me to drive in wet condition for nearly 10 days.’’

Waldegaard’s career spans four decades after winning the Swedish Rally Championship in 1967 and ‘68.

He continued to compete at the top level until 1992 when a broken arm suffered during a crash in the 1992 Safari Rally forced his retirement from the World Rally Championship series.

His first international victory came in the 1969 Monte Carlo Rally at the wheel of a Porsche 911.

His last came for Toyota in the 1990 Safari. It made him the oldest driver to win a World Rally Championship event, a record he still retains.

In the mid 1970s, Waldegaard took part in the newborn European Championship for Rallycross Drivers with a privately entered Porsche Carrera RSR.

His best overall result was the Runner-up to Austrian Franz Wurz, father of Alexander Wurz, of the 1974 Embassy European Rallycross Championship.

The Lancia team of the 1970s frequently chose between star drivers Waldegaard and Italian frontrunner Sandro Munari.

Waldegaard and Munari came head to head in the 1976 Rallye Sanremo.

Driving Ford Escort RS models, Waldegaard won three of the world’s most punishing rallies in 1977; the East African Safari Rally, the Acropolis Rally and the RAC Rally.

He was later victor in the inaugural World Rally Championship series in 1979 for Ford and Mercedes-Benz, beating Hannu Mikkola in the final round at the Rallye Cote d’Ivoire by finishing second behind his rival.

Meanwhile, local rally navigator Ravi Soni gets a lifetime breakthrough to navigate a world renowned driver in the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally set to take off tomorrow from the centre of Mombasa.

Soni, familiarly associated with Kirit Rajput in the KCB Kenya National Rally Championship, will navigate former Formula One driver Eric Comas in a Renault Alpine A110 after the original crew of the car dropped out due to medical reasons.

Comas, who was originally to manage his two-car team before the incident, will now take over as a driver of one of the cars. 

The KQ-event will start on Sunday afternoon with a ceremonial spectator stage from under the Elephants Tusks on Moi Avenue at 3pm.