Todt’s Kenya visit important for WRC Safari Rally’s success

In motorsport speak, the next three days will revolve around the influential International Automobile Federation (FIA) President Jean Todt “returning home” in his three-day historic tour of Kenya.
Popping the champagne will also be in order.

The 74-year-old Frenchman, no doubt the most powerful man in the influential global federation which governs Formula One and World Rally Championship (WRC), among other disciplines, loves Kenya and now with the iconic Safari Rally back in the high-profile WRC, his sense purpose is overwhelming.

Apart from getting the 2021 WRC Safari Rally work in progress briefing organisers, and attending other obligations at the UN headquarters in Gigiri as the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Road Safety, Todt will roll up his sleeves aplenty.

He launched the 19-million-trees WRC Safari Rally Greening Legacy Project by planting the first tree - Acacia Xanthopholea or Yellow Fever species - at the Safari Rally Kasarani Stadium headquarters Tuesday accompanied by the FIA World Motorsport Council member Amina Mohamed, also Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Sports.

On Thursday, he will inspect the WRC Safari Rally KWS Training Institute Service Park in Naivasha before giving a keynote address on the Safari, then, as usual, have some fun and plenty of sunshine in our tourism destinations.

“When I am here, people ask me ‘Is this the first time?’, Todt told Kenyans on February 27, 2018, when he opened the WRC Safari Rally secretariat, marking the start of Kenya’s journey towards returning back in the WRC.

“I say: ‘Not the first time, I think I have been here over 30 times; for rallying and for pleasure, because (Kenya) it is one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

“If you go to Mt Kenya, if you are going to the sea, Malindi, Mombasa, Lamu… I mean it is a much-diversified country with beautiful people. It deserves it (Safari in the WRC),” he said.

However, this will be his second longest official motorsport working tour ending Friday since 1985/86 season, then as Peugeot Talbot Sport team’s principal fielded star-studded line-up including three previous world champions - Ari Vatanen, Stig Blomqvist, Juha Kankkunen and Shekar Mehta - in the all-conquering Peugeot 205 Turbo Group B monsters.

The French automaker, a dominant force in the 60s and 70s, last won the Safari Rally in 1978 and this has never been lost on Todt, FIA President since 2008.

He recalled in 2018: "East African Safari was the reference point in the world of motorsport.

"If you are not a local then you cannot win,” was the reputation of the Safari in the rest of the world,” he said.
Always, a true sportsman Todt, a former Ferrari F1 team boss, idolised East African drivers in his youthful days.

"I took part eight times and never finished apart from 1973 when we finished third with Ove Andersson [in a Peugeot 504]. My heroes were people like Joginder Singh, Nick Norwicki and [Bert] Shankland."

Todt always desired to see the Safari, dropped from the high profile 12-13 rounds WRC in 2002 due to safety and financial constraints challenges, regains this status in previous meetings with the WRC Safari Rally Patron, President Uhuru Kenyatta.

In 2018 he disclosed to government officials, motorsport stakeholders and the media of his engagement and covenant with President Kenyatta to help him secure his legacy of returning the Safari in the WRC Safari Rally as promised in the 2013 Jubilee Manifesto.  

"I met with President Kenyatta (at State House), who pulled me aside and told me that he wants the Safari back in the WRC as part of his legacy," said Todt who has always wanted Kenya to use the Safari to promote road safety in Africa."

Todt contested the Safari eight times during his career as a co-driver.

He began his career in motorsport in 1966 driving the family Mini Cooper in local French rallies before shifting to navigating.

[email protected]