Kenya misses the vroom of the Safari Rally in Easter holidays

Times were and the sighs of the seniors tell it all.

The Easter season is here and going but it is never the same again just because the annual WRC Safari Rally is no longer there and there are no signs that we shall ever see it again.

Since the loss, Easter period for many rally fans has become irrelevant. Gone are the days when every Kenyan had a radio under a tree listening to rally updates and when friends and families found camping and picnicking as ideal reason to move out of town.

Household names such as Patrick Njiru, Jonathan Toroitich, Bjorn Waldegaard, Tommi Makinen, Carlos Sainz, Didier Auriol, Joginder Singh, Kenjiro Shinozuka and of course the most successful of them all Shekar Mehta were easy to reach despite their status as World Rally star drivers only heard of or read in the newspapers.

It was also a privilege for the locals to work with major teams as such Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and Daihatsu. Some of the local drivers were lucky to be engaged as part of the team as competitors and chase-car drivers, an honor many cherished for a long time.

The Safari Rally was first held from May 27 to June 1, 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari through Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika as part of the celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1960, it was renamed the East African Safari Rally until the name was changed again to Safari Rally in 1974.

INTERANTIONAL CIRCUIT

The event was part of the World Rally Championship calendar for many years until it was excluded after 2002 due to lack of funding and proper organisation in 2003. Since 2003, the event has been part of the FIA African Rally Championship.

It is currently known as the KCB Safari Rally after its sponsor, Kenya Commercial Bank, who has of course done much to keep the older spirit alive but it does not change the fact that the its stature has diminished from an international giant to a petit continental affair.

Safari Rally was an event of such classic stature that attracted audience from around the world. It soon became known as endurance event with distance of 5300 kilometers in 1973 before the route shrunk to the present status which the competitive distance hardly reaches 800 kilometers. Though the event is in a class of its own when it comes to competitive distance.

Just why did Kenya lose out on this grand affair? What happened to us that made FIA to pull out our country from the international circuit?

How can we get back to the blurred niche? Surinder Thatthi, the head of the FIA in Africa, said this at a recent interview: “Besides having big chunk of sponsor money, Kenya has to make sure the Safari Rally is properly organised and its stages are on completely closed circuits.”

Easy said than done. It is possible though if that is the only requirement, Kenya is not a small boy and we are at the digital juncture where we believe much can be accomplished. The Safari was dubbed the ‘world’s toughest rally’ just by the sheer endurance required to compete in it. We let our rally route pass through murram roads in the wilds of our land and glorified in that malicious tag till it was no longer possible to compete in it.

Weather played important part, no matter how it turned out. If it was wet, mud was everywhere and progress slowed down considerably. If it was dry, dust became a problem. It was not uncommon for a driver to complain that he had caught up a slower car but had been unable to pass, or even approach because of the dust. Even then, we still stuck to our tag and worked hard to keep the toughest rally ticket when we were actually becoming irrelevant and impossible.

Animals were a danger in the vast African plains. On open ground, animals were easy to spot even without the helicopter support but in bushes the situation was different.

Besides nature, the character of the roads, long distances and high speeds, Safari was unique because it was the last WRC rally to run on open roads. Admittedly, traffic was scarce but meeting a matatu, full-laden and slow bus, caused more than one accident.

Times changed and world rallying with it. Move towards cloverleaf format with single service park and shorter overall distance did not suite well with the spirit of Safari and event was eventually dropped in favor of Turkey.

Many fans and traditionalists were shocked but there was silent relief amongst teams. It had been a grueling and expensive to the competitors and by removing Kenya from the circuit their relief, albeit hushed was justifiable.

EXPENSIVE SPORT

All the same, safari was a unique challenge but contesting it consumed far more resources than any other rally, being great strain for the teams!

As emphasis on World Rally Championship moved ever more towards performance, Safari remained an endurance event where restraint usually paid off.

This approach was first discarded by Mitsubishi in 1996 when team had concluded during testing that by routinely changing all suspension components in every service, their car would last the distance even with 100 per cent speed.

The Safari Rally adopted the special stage format in 1996. From that edition until 2002, it featured over 1000Km of timed stages, with stages well over 60 km long, unlike most rallies which had less than 500 km of total timed distance. This meant that the winner’s total time was above 12 hours in 1996 and

More needs to be done if Kenya has to reclaim the WRC status. Despite all the glamour and image of the Safari Rally, Kenya was placed third in the ratings of the 2012 African Rally Championship, which saw Zimbabwe at the top followed by South Africa in the second place.

Despite the poor rating, Kenya, with its unique features, is still regarded as one of the top African countries that could change the real face of the WRC with equal representation from across the globe.

But just how can Kenya regain the status of being a leg in the international circuit?

Stages must be properly graded

According to Thatthi, Kenya would need to identify areas which are able to host an event of the WRC status. Organisers would then have to make sure the stages of up to 130Km are properly graded, and safety is guaranteed with allocation of marshals at every 300 meters along the route.

“Once able to fulfill the FIA requirements, the next big target would be the budget to start the project. Initially, Kenya would need $0.5 million (about Sh43 million) to help acquire FIA permit, timing and tracking devices, pay for promoter fees and other documents.

“A further $2 million (about Sh172 million) would be required to help grade the roads and cost of other organisational duties,” says Thatthi. He says that safety and security is also considered one of the major requirements of the FIA, if the chances of getting the world rally championship status have to be revived.

Safari Rally, once an icon in the eyes not only the drivers and their service crews, but more so for the vast number of local inhabitants celebrating the Easter holidays, may seem never to return to its glory days as many would love to see the WRC status return to Kenya.

But if we meet the requirements set by FIA, who knows? Our children may wonder at what we held high in our days.