AfricaPress-Kenya: The technical and picturesque nature of WRC Safari Rally Kenya will not be for the faint-hearted, according to Deputy Clerk of the course Nazir Yakub.
While describing the course, Yakub said the rally will basically be a navigator’s affair and the best will carry the day.
“Let us be honest— navigators will have to control their drivers not to break their cars. This is not Wales and neither is it Finland. It is Safari. It’s a long game. It might be a short rally from the look of things but you have to think long when driving on Safari. You might come with a maximum attack strategy on a first outing, but all in all, it will not be an easy ride,” said Yakub.
He said sections on both Naivasha and Soysambu Conservancies are both technical and basically all the same.
“This is all degraded lava fields and the same soil profile. It’s on the floor of the Great Rift Valley for both and the surface is all the same. The thing that automatically changes is the amount of rockery on the South Lakeside and the terrain which is more hilly as you know,” he noted.
This year’s WRC Safari Rally Kenya will be interested in many facets. For one, the current crop of WRC P1 and P2 drivers are yet to compete on African soil and Yakub believes it’ll be a completely new challenge.
He revealed that the WRC drivers will have no choice but to think of the last day of the rally. This year’s Safari will culminate with the Hell’s Gate power stage.
Yakub believes local drivers will have to drive a lot more aggressive on the race weekend.
“For our local boys, it’s a challenge because they are competing against people on top of the game.
“We might have a little awareness of the surface but when you’re competing against the very best drivers in the world, it’s something different.
“The challenge of world drivers is that they will have to keep up with the best of the best in the world,” Yakub said.
The most interesting aspect of the Soysambu Conservancy section is the picturesque landscape which has the famous Sleeping Warrior hill and indeed Lake Elementaita which is a heaven of Flamingoes.
The Hill behind the stage is the famous “Sleeping Warrior”, always asleep but very lethal on the rally weekend. The last few Kilometres of Sleeping Warrior will be a tough rocky ride.
Elementaita will be a 15kms stage, Soysambu 20km, and Sleeping Warrior 32. The volcanic ash Kedong stage, which is the longest stage, is 33km.
