Foreign teams gear up for East African Classic Rally
Stig Blomqvist competes in the 2013 edition of the East African Safari Classic Rally. PHOTO | FILE |
What you need to know:
- Viking Motorsport team has confirmed it has shipped the car to Mombasa ahead of the competition.
United Kingdom-based motor vehicle builder Viking Motorsport has shipped the Ford Escort RS 1800 car of Jorge Perez Companc and Jose Maria Volta to Mombasa in time for the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally.
Viking Motorsport team, which specialises in the building and preparation of high quality Gp 4 Mark 2 Ford Escort cars, has confirmed it has shipped the car to Mombasa ahead of the competition.
Companc has always savoured his appearances in the Safari Classic Rally. He participated in the 2013 and 2015 editions and is back for the prestigious marathon event slated for Kenya and Tanzania from November 23 to December 1. “We are all set for 2017 Safari Classic.
The cars were packed and containers left last week for Mombasa,” Viking team said, adding: “It was a huge task to pack for such an event and 4,000 kilometres over nine days is one of the great challenges left in rallying today.”
Other Safari Classic teams which have already shipped their cars to Mombasa for the event include Tuthill Porsche who manage a fleet of Porsche 911s, the Mercedes NAC Rally Team from Poland, and the Kenyan-born British duo of Scott Armstrong and Harpal Sudle who have already shipped their Datsun car to Mombasa.
Meanwhile, Tuthill Porsche cars are expected in Kenya by end of next month before they are moved to their rally base at Vipingo Ridge just outside Mombasa.
Team owner Richard Tutthill said: “Safari led us to develop a system for maintaining a large number of cars in remote locations, and this is what we now do wherever and whenever we travel on events. We effectively run a myriad of individual teams, controlled and coordinated centrally.
“Each car has its own spares kit box – measuring 6ft x 3ft x 3ft – in which there are enough parts and spares to do most of the rally. On top of this, we also have a mother ship in the form of a 40ft container that travels everywhere with us. Forty per cent of the container is an air-conditioned parts store, which is racked and loaded with military precision, leaving sixty per cent to hold than two hundred wheels and tyres and other large consumables and equipment.”
