Pace of 2023 WRC Safari Rally preparations shifts up the gears

Preparations for the WRC Safari Rally 2023 have entered the home stretch.

Media accreditation opens today followed by the submission of competition entries from April 29.

The media accreditation process signifies the importance of the Safari to the press which has very supportive of the last two editions. The attention given to the rally by all leading print and TV media houses increased exponentially.

The Safari was watched by over 80 million people daily, which came to a cumulatively audience of 240 million, to emerge as one of the leading global sporting events. Its viewership matched Wimbledon Tennis, Tour de France cycling and European football league matches around the same time.

In fact, the Safari has emerged as the most watched rally in the 13-rounds World Rally Championship buoyed by the ruggedly beautiful routes through the untamed African Savannah teeming with wildlife in Naivasha and Gilgil.

Here, the best drivers in the most sophisticated machines have been humbled.

This reputation has caught up with consumers of social media news especially the youth across the globe who depend on such global behemoths like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube to follow the Safari. The initial comprehensive list of journalists released by the FIA wishing to come to Kenya is quite impressive, and many will, as is the emerging trend, extend their stay to visit either the Masai Mara or Nairobi National Park.

Clerk-of-Course Gurvi Bhabra and his assistant George Mwangi were yesterday involved in a full day meeting with experts seconded by the WRC Promoter, Iain Campbell and Jaoa Passos, to review the check list of this year’s Safari Rally.

These two gentlemen have been working with Gurvi and his team since 2019 in organising a modern day WRC from scratch and with an admirable level of success.

The WRC Safari Rally Secretariat has already published Rally Guide One magazine which outlines all important aspects of a World Rally Championship raging from the route, host country’s statutory requirements, and availability of accommodation to communication.

The Safari is using last year’s route template with minor changes including scrapping the Narasha open roads stage over the hills overlooking the Ol Karia Geothermal wells, photogenic by all standards, but an eye opener of varying present-day WRC challenges outside closed stages.

Meanwhile, the month of April has been very unfortunate for sports in Kenya and the world following the death of long serving President of Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) Waithaka Kioni, celebrated Zambian rally ace Satwant Singh and Hyundai World Rally Championship Team driver Craig Breen.

Waithaka was the father of Mwangi Kioni, who is McRae Kimathi’s regular co-driver in local and international rally circuit, and their success in the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) is partly credited to Breen, the Irish superstar who perished on April 13 during a testing run in Croatia in a Hyundai i20 Hybrid.

Breen introduced Kimathi to snow racing in Gelio, Norway ahead of his JWRC debut in WRC Rally Sweden last year.

Owes

Kimathi says in his condolences that he owes his fifth position in JWRC on change of attitude and skills to Breen who impacted invaluable lessons to the Kenyan aboard an M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally 3 and off it for free, without prejudice which changed him forever.

Breen left for Hyundai last year after a stint in Ford, and was enjoying himself aplenty, finishing second in Rallye Monte Carlo last January.

He is fondly remembered by Kimathi, Mwangi and many drivers who interacted with him last year.

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