Plans for hosting a world class Safari Rally event on its return to the World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar after 19 years, are  almost complete.

The Local Organising Committee boss Phenious Kimathi yesterday said the preparation was currently 90 per cent complete as they decided to expand the service park further to accomodate more containers and helicopters and that everything would be in places several days before the event is flagged off.

“We managed to host a succesful Equator Rally two weeks ago, which was part of the Africa Rally Championships.

It was like a dry run for the WRC Safari Rally as it enable us to test our equipment like timing systems, satelite connectivity, fibre optic, wifi and radio frequencies to ensure that they were all in perfect conditions, so we are only left with fine tuning,” said Kimathi.

He added: “We have realised that we need to expand the service park, because during the Equator Rally, we had only five helicopters and they almost filled their designated area, yet we expect more than 15 helicopters during the WRC event.”

Kimathi said the construction of the presidential pavilion was also taking shape and will be spacious and modern to be able to host all the top dignitaries that would grace the event.

“We have several 40ft containers with participants cars and spare parts currently in deep seas and we will start receiving them from May 20.

Already we have a team of security personnel in Mombasa, planing for a smooth and secure clearing of the containers,” he said.

Rally routes

Kimathi ruled out making the rally routes easy for foreign drivers despite the fact that the routes claimed a number of casualties during the Equator Rally, claiming that the beauty of Safari Rally was it’s toughness.

“It’s the great Kenyan experience in Africa and in previous years we referred to it as the toughest rally in the world, so we expect to maintain that tag. It will be a test of man and machine,” he said.