Full house of works teams will enthral fans in the Safari Rally

Any chance of manufacturers skipping the 2021 World Rally Championship Safari Rally has been removed following the announcement by M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s confirmation that their cargo of recce cars and equipment will leave Southampton, England in a freighter to Mombasa this week, a whole two months before this year’s Safari.

Ford is the WRC Safari Rally defending champion, having won 2002 edition through the late Colin McRae in a Ford Focus, so it is natural that their sense of elation is high for their advance team to return first in Kenya well before the third WRC round in Croatia next week.

Two other rounds in Portugal and Italy are still on the cards before Kenya on June 24-27 in Nairobi and Naivasha where residents are warming up to welcome the world and bask in the international limelight the town so much deserves. 

Ford’s arrival will be followed by Hyundai and Toyota teams, which are also keen to see ship in their cargo early to avoid unexpected eventualities such as the recent closure of the Suez Canal after a marine vessel veered off course and stalled sideways for days.

The Ford cargo is expected at the port of Mombasa in the first week of May, and rally enthusiasts are looking forward to seeing the second generation World Rally Car touch down on African soil after 19 years.

The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has already made elaborate plans to receive the works and other professional teams’ equipment in Mombasa before the state corporation transfers the same from the freighters, then load it to the SGR, the designated transporter to the Naivasha Inland Container Depot (ICD), from where it will be ferried by road to the Naivasha KWS Training Institute Service Park.

Teams will set up their pre-fabricated headquarters in readiness for one of the most eagerly-awaited WRC events in the world. It will be held under strict Covid-19 protocols defined by the international motorsport governing body FIA, and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Ford Fiesta is a mean machine developing in excess of 380 Break Horse Power and over 200kph top speed, although the exact acceleration from 0-100kph remains classified information by all the teams.

It will be interesting to see how Ford and others will fair in some few straights of the Safari stages to see if they can match the 225kph Michelle Mouton, in her own admission, clipped in one straight stretch between Ole Tepesi and Tulle in 1983 Safari in a Group B Audi Quattro car.

The same year, Stig Blomqvist and Björn Cederberg averaged 117.77mph (189.42kph) in an Audi Quattro car through the 80km Fray Louis Beltran to Valle Azul opening stage of 1983 Rally Argentina, to date the highest constant speed ever achieved by a rally car.

Simply put, the Swede covered the distance - only 10km short of the stretch of road from Nairobi to Naivasha but obviously not a straight line -  in 25 minutes and 48 seconds.

Closer home, it is only natural for the boys in Blue Subarus to show some respect to the Impreza machine and Juha Kankkunen every time they perform stunts on open roads. The Subaru Impreza is not for boys. Why? In 2007, Kankkunen hit 273.588kph in Subaru Impreza without a turbo restrictor in a rally event in Peru, according to McKlein Group "B" book. Therefore, there is no comparison between the Group B car and WRC machines.

Interestingly, it will be eye-pleasing to watch these super machines in action, hoping as WRC Safari Deputy Clerk of Course Nazir Yakub prayed for rains. Throw in the Kenyan gravel surface which ranges from porous lava soil, millennia-old sharp stones, high altitude, and unpredictable weather on the floor of the Rift Valley, and you realise why Ford are coming early.

The works teams’ plans for the Safari were thrown into disarray shortly before they sent their cargo to Mombasa from Mexico when the government postponed the Safari due to the Covid-19 pandemic.