Sports
The waiting is over, it’s time for action
Officials inspect Porsche 924 car which will be driven by Jean-Marc Bussoloni and his wife Patricia during a scrutineering session at the Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort ahead of the Kenya Airways East African Classic rally which starts Saturday. Photo/GIDEON MAUNDU
Posted Saturday, November 21 2009 at 22:00
In Summary
- Action starts in Mombasa city centre before heading off to the Vipingo Ranch for spectator stage
Meanwhile, mention the East African Safari Rally and it is not long before the name of five times winner of that world famous event, Shekhar Mehta, crops up.
Sadly Shekhar passed away two years ago, but his presence at the 2003 and 2005 Safari Classic rallies did much to help them establish the present status of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally, a major international rally set to hit headlines from Monday onwards.
Shekhar’s spirit will certainly be present at the 2009 Safari Classic. His five Safari wins were all obtained in Datsuns and it is thus no surprise to know that these cars outnumber the other marques on the Safari Classic. Of the forty-six entries, Datsuns ocoupy the highest number of rally cars in the list of those cars ready to start take part in the rally.
Shekhar wife Yvonne Mehta has also kept close touch the Classic Safari Rally having visited on numerous occasions.
Former Kenya national champion, Jayant Shah of Tanzania will contest the event for the fourth consecutive time with Loft Drews who is based in Australia. They will be driving a Datsun 260Z.
Joey Ghose, who navigated Sammy Aslam to the finish of the 1994 Safari Rally, will drive a Datsun 1600sss for the first time since moving to England over a decade ago.
After the start from Mombasa, the crews’ first stop will be at the Taita Hills Lodge. From here drivers will tackle more competitive stages leading to Arusha for the end of the second day competition. The third and fourth day action will be based around Arusha.
The sixth day action will see cars visit stages through Kajiado and Ngong leading to Naivasha thus disconnect Nairobi from this year’s route plans.
Naivasha will host the seventh and eighth day respectively before heading back to Taita Hills via Ngong and Kajiado. The final day will see crews move back to Mombasa in time for the prize-giving ceremony.
Access Kenya will continue to provide internet services which are considered vital to the success of the running of the internationally renowned outfit especially on the media related programmes both in print and electronic stations.
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