Dakar ace De Mevius signs up for Safari Classic Rally

File | Nation
Sporting legends, from left, five-time Safari Rally winner Bjorn Waldegard from Sweden, Kenya’s “Flying Sikh” Joginder Singh, also a multiple Safari Rally winner, and Olympic gold medallist Kipchoge Keino, a member of the International Olympic Committee, pictured together at the start of the last Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally. This year’s Classic has so far attracted 24 entries.
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Gregoire De Mevius, a regular campaigner with the Nissan team in the Dakar Rally, is the latest big name to sign up for this year’s Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally.

De Mevius, who won last year’s Morocco Classic Rally, will race in a Porsche 911.

The 48-year-old Belgian is a veteran of 48 rallies having made his debut in 1988 in the 1,000 Lakes Rally in a career that has seen him behind the wheels of Subaru, Ford, Mazda and Nissan makes.

20 overseas entrants

And as entries for the Safari Classic Rally continued to arrive over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, organisers remain confident of the toughest competition yet, with 24 drivers having signed up so far.

These include 20 overseas entrants with four local Kenyan drivers having confirmed their entries.

Other notable entries are former rally leader Steve Perez from UK and Graham Alexander from Australia and 14 new drivers including Jean-Pierre Mondron (owner of Kronos Racing) Gunther Kronseder and the husband and wife team of Jean-Marc and Patricia Bussolini in a Porsche 924.

Local hopes, so far, are pinned on Aslam Khan and Ashard Khan in their Porsche 911, although more are likely to trickle in as the competition approaches.

“It is evident that the 2011 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic may see an important piece of rally history replayed as done in the past,” race director Surinder Thatthi said on Tuesday.

It was thirty-six years ago that Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palm finally broke the stranglehold of the local drivers and became the first crew from outside East Africa to win the Safari.

Ever since the event’s inception in 1953, the winners had always been drivers living in one of the three countries – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – that made up East Africa.