Start of Safari Rally sections to be graded ‘for level field’
World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally Service Park Manager Anthony Gatei (left) fields questions from journalists during a media familiarisation tour of the Service Park in Naivasha on March 2, 2021.
What you need to know:
- A WRC car, such the Hyundai, Ford or Toyota, produces 380 horsepower while the R5 models such as the VW, Skoda, Ford produce 280hp
- On the first day of the Equator Rally on Friday, the drivers will do a practice run in the Ndulele Conservancy
- Kenyan classic car owners have appealed to organisers of classic rallies across Africa to include their racing cars in the competitions
A special feature will be incorporated into this year’s WRC Safari Rally to maintain a “level playing field” at the start line of competitive stages.
Nazir Yakub, the rally’s Deputy Clerk of the Course, explained in details of the plans affecting the WRC Safari Rally stages.
“We plan to excavate the width of the road at the start of a competitive section. The start area will be dug one metre deep some five metres before start line up to 20 metres after start line,” said Yakub at the weekend.
“We will then backfill, roll and harden the starting space to withstand to the enormous torque generated at the start line by these impressive rally cars.”
A WRC car, such the Hyundai, Ford or Toyota, produces 380 horsepower while the R5 models such as the VW, Skoda, Ford produce 280hp. In Comparison a standard, 1,000cc Toyota Vitz is only able to produce 70hp.
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The Equator Rally will tackle six competitive stages that will be used in the 2021 WRC Safari Rally set up.
The drivers will tackle Elmentaita, Soysambu and Sleeping Warrior on Day Two while Day Three will pass through Malewa, Loldia and Kedong once.
The competition will not touch the stages through Oserian, Chui, Hell’s Gate and the Special Spectator Stage at Kasarani which form a strong part of this year’s Safari Rally programme.
On the first day of the Equator Rally on Friday, the drivers will do a practice run in the Ndulele Conservancy.
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Kenyan classic car owners have appealed to organisers of classic rallies across Africa to include their racing cars in the competitions.
Aslam Khan, who owns a Porsche 911 and who has contested the East African Safari Rally Classic Rally on many occasions, is one of the many owners pushing for such inclusion.
The suggestion is to include the Class in major events where they can be allowed to start at the tail end and tackle every one stage of the sections that are repeated in the course of the competition.
In Kenya, the cars are seen in the classic events every once or twice in a year. The cars are of the models that were manufactured before 1986. They are two-wheel drive machines with normally aspirated engines.
