Safari Rallyt; On your marks, get ready…

At a ceremony held in a Nairobi hotel earlier today, Michael Okwiri, the Head of Marketing and Corporate Communication for Kenya Airways, announced the starting order for the 2007 Kenya Airways Safari Classic rally. With fifty-nine crews from all over world entered on this gruelling nine-day event, who starts first is, to them at least, very important news. The Safari Classic takes place over loose surfaced roads in Kenya and Tanzania and those behind have to drive in the dust generated by the cars in front.


In the days of the old Safari Rally, the allocation of start numbers was done purely by lottery with names being pulled out of a hat. Very often, the quickest drivers were at the back of the field and this was not popular with them - or with the slower drivers or cars that they had to pass. Nowadays, a little science and great deal of commonsense is used to try and avoid that situation with the officials of the rally choosing the starting order based on knowledge of the drivers and their cars. Surinder Thatthi, the Event Director explained “We decided to put the faster drivers at the top of the list by gauging their past experience. We want to ensure smooth sailing in regards to safety issues. Particularly, we want to avoid a scenario whereby by slower drivers will be caught up and have to be passed by the hard-charging competitors. We have considered previous results to ascertain the ability of competitors. And of course from the second day, the re-start will be in order of classification.”


In view of that, it is no surprise to find the number one seed is ex-World Rally Champion and four times Safari winner, Björn Waldegård. He will be driving a Ford Escort RS1600 with his son, Mathias. Starting behind him will be the very experienced Belgian, Gerard Marcy, at the wheel of a Porsche 911 while behind him comes yet another World Rally Champion - and another Swede - Stig Blomqvist also in a Ford Escort RS1600. Chasing Blomqvist will be Frenchman, and Safari veteran, Frederic Dor in a Porsche 911 and he starts just ahead of the top local seed - and another Safari winner - Ian Duncan driving a Ford Mustang. In all there are eighteen East African drivers entered on the Kenya Airways Safari Classic while in the rest of the fifty-nine strong field there are drivers from Sweden, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Australia, Portugal, Czech Republic, South Africa, Austria, Germany, Holland and the USA.


At the announcement of the starting order, Kenyan Sports Commissioner, Gordon Oluoch said the event evokes lots of nostalgic memories of the days the rally was thousands of miles long and traversed through all three East Africa Countries - Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - though this year it only goes through Kenya and Tanzania. He said the rally will be a major boost to the enhancement of the East African spirit. “We as the government are happy to see motor sports in Kenya coming off age and we will work very closely to ensure its success,” Oluoch said.


» Pressrelease från Safarirallyt, www.eastafricansafarirally.com.

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