The waiting is over, it’s time for action

• Action starts in Mombasa city centre before heading off to the Vipingo Ranch for spectator stage

After months of preparing, drivers and their rally cars will finally be on the road for the start of the 2009 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally set to start on Sunday morning from the centre of Mombasa town.

It will be followed by real action at a spectator stage to be run on the Vipingo Ranch later in the afternoon.

Cars of the olden-days will be in the full view of the spectators who are expected to fill up at the venue which hosted the final round of the 2009 KCB Kenya National Rally Championship. More are expected to line up along the rally routes on both sides of Kenya and Tanzania over the next nine days of real action.

Drivers will return to White Sands Hotel for an overnight halt before preparing to leave for a long journey lasting nearly nine days over a not so forgiving terrains along the 4500km-route.

The first car will leave the White Sands Hotel at 6.30am Monday morning before heading for the Vipingo Stage for the second time in as many days.

Cars will then head for the second competitive stage of the day at Mackinon Road where the first car will be expected at 9.52am. Shelembwa will be the final stage of the day (11.23am) before cars head for the service park and for the night rest halt at the Taita Hill Lodge.

The second day’s action will move to Tanzania where Arusha will be the host for the event for the next two days.

Ian Duncan, vying for his second attempt at the marathon rally at the wheels of a Ford Mustang, is the leading Kenyan driver in the list of international drivers from as far as Australia, America, Belgium, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Tanzania, South Africa, Italy, Switzerland and England.

The 1994 Safari Rally winner will be part of the larger number of crews whose intent is to successfully tackle the “World’s Greatest Classic Car Rally’’.

Kenya won the event twice in a row in 2003 and 2005 at the hands of Rob Collinge in a Datsun 260Z respectively before losing the grip to Waldegaard in 2007 at the wheels of a Ford Escort RS2000. The Swede will attempt to defend the title in a Porsche 911.

Aziz Tejpar, who last rallied in Kenya in 1989 before moving to England, has entered a Ford Escort.

“It is one event I must do before I die. It is going to be difficult time over the next 10 days but that is where the fun is going to be,’’ joked Tejpar.

Re-union

Tejpar added: “The plan is to keep moving until one drops down. We have a disadvantage of driving without power steering but no worries. It will be a reunion with my old navigator who last sat with me over 20 years ago.’’

Tejpar will be navigated by Andy Nagi, a familiar name in the KNRC series as a former navigator and lately as a renowned rally organizer.