Safari Rally challenge edges closer as machines and drivers start arriving from Thursday

It is the first elephant. Or giraffe. Or any one of the big five, they would do the job as well. When you spot one of those animals you know, immediately. You’re back. Back in Africa and back on the Safari.

It is an incredible moment. The wildlife you grew up watching on television or reading about in books is just the other side of the windscreen.

That epic adventure – Safari Rally Kenya – is right alongside it, just sitting in wait. There is something special about every round of the FIA World Rally Championship, but next week’s Naivasha-based event just has something a little bit extra.

The sense of adventure starts at the car hire desk; you check and double check the spare wheel – this is not the place to be left stranded without a fully inflated response to a puncture.

The sights and sounds here are like nowhere else. And it’s a collected sense of adventure, talk to everybody and there’s a story of something out of the ordinary, something different to the French Alps or Finland.

And then the rally starts and the madness begins. The Safari still has the ability to throw the curviest of curveballs at all involved. And it usually does. All of that before we mention the weather.

Welcome to March, to the rainy season. Anything can happen. And that’s all part of the appeal of this beautiful rally.

Meanwhile, the cars that will take part at this year’s WRC Safari Rally event are expected in the country on Thursday, the same day a bulk of the foreign drivers will arrive, while some drivers and their crews have been schedule to arrive on Friday.

Organisers of the event are working round the clock to put final touches on the preparations as the mood starts to creep in, while Media Council of Kenya (MCK) in conjunction with Sports Journalists Association of Kenya (SJAK) have organised for a Media Workshop on Tuesday next week in Naivasha, the eve of the event Shakedown.

Elsewhere. two rounds in and the Ford team was probably eyeing a trip to Kenya with some trepidation. Twenty-five years ago, the Focus WRC remained very much a new car. And that year’s Safari Rally offered a very big test.

The season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo had proved something of a disaster, with both factory Fords excluded for water pump irregularities. Four stage wins for Colin McRae in the French Alps allied to Thomas Rådström’s third place in Sweden demonstrated the Focus WRC had plenty of pace – but did it have the durability?

In a further complication for the British-based team, Petter Solberg had to fly out as a late replacement for the injured Rådström. The Norwegian drove well on his full factory debut, placing his car fifth, but it was McRae who stole the limelight.

Colin’s Focus ran an early third, then moved ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Toyota when the Spaniard suffered a pair of punctures while Richard Burns’ Subaru fell foul of a suspension problem.

The Scot emerged from day two’s second section from Nyaru to Eldama Raving with a four-minute lead over Didier Auriol (Toyota). By the end of that day that advantage had mushroomed to 14 minutes from Tommi Mäkinen’s Mitsubishi.

Just Sunday to go, but 25 years ago, just Sunday on the Safari still meant 277 competitive kilometres.
They were no bother for McRae (apart from a puncture on the second of four sections). He brought the car home at the front to score a sensationally quick and controlled victory for the Malcolm Wilson-run team.