Top crews gear up for East African Rally start

The 2019 East African Safari Classic Rally revs off on Wednesday at 11am from the Whitesands Hotel in Mombasa.

Mombasa Cement will host the first of the 24 competitive stages as the competition, which will also take drivers to Tanzania, starts after months of preparations. The first stage of the competition, now in its eighth edition, will be 18 kilometres long.

Cars will be parked in the Whitesands Hotel Pac Ferme at the end of the stage before crews tackle the main part of the competition on Thursday morning.

The nine-day event will see crews spend the first four days of the competition tackling the route based in Kenya. The route for last four days of the competition, including and a day’s rest, will be based in Tanzania. The crews will thereafter return to Kenya.

Besides telecommunications giant Safaricom, Vivo Energy Kenya through its Shell V-Power and Aviation Gas (Avgas) brands will be the other key sponsors of the 2019 East Africa Classic Rally. Other co-sponsors are Bidco Africa, Omologato and DT Dobie. The rally will cover more than 4,500 kilometers in Kenya and Tanzania over nine days. The longest stage will be 160km long while the shortest will be 60km.

The East African Classic Safari Rally has been held every two years since 2003 and is open to two-wheel drive, naturally aspirated rally cars built before 1985. Although the event has received one of the lowest entries so far this year, it has one of the strongest lists of foreign drivers, some of whom will grace the world famous Marathon Raid Rally.

Three drivers who have won the Safari Classic Rally before, Ian Duncan, Stiq Blomqvist and Ryan Champion, are among 20 drivers who will line up at the starting point on Wednesday.

However, Champion, who shared the victory with Kenya’s Tundo in the 2017 edition, will this year navigate Philip Kadoorie in one of the Porsche 911 cars.

ENTRY LIST

1. Baldev Chager/Ravi Soni (Porsche 911 Kenya)

2.Stig Blomqvist/Jorgen Fornander (Porsche 911 Sweden)

3.Ian Duncan/Anthony Nielsen (Rover Vitesse Kenya)

4.Onkar Rai/Gareth Dawe (Porsche 911 Kenya)

5.Tejvir RaI/Gavin Laurance (Porsche 911 Kenya)

6.Roger Samuelsson/Robin Friberg (Porsche 911 Austrian)

7.Philip Kadoorie/Ryan Champion (Porsche 911 Britain)

8.Aslam Khan/Imran Khan (Porsche 911 Kenya)

9.Kris Rosenberger/Nicola Bleicher (Porsche 911 Austria)

10.Eugenio Amos/Robert Mometti (Porsche 911 Italy)

11.Jayant Shah/Arshard Khan (Porsche 911 Tanzania)

12.Gilberto Sandretto/Fabrizia Pons