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FIA RALLY: Teams head to Kenya for the Sameer Safari Rally

25 February 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

After the cold, icy roads of Sweden the FIA World Championship has decamped south to Kenya for the Sameer Safari Rally. The toughest event of the entire 14-round Championship places extreme demands on cars and drivers with some individual competitive sections as long as an entire day on 'European-style' events. Because of the length of the competitive sections and the intense heat, this is the one event of the season where the tyre companies will not always use the anti-deflation mousse inserts that are now commonplace in rallying. Such systems are expected to be used only on the shorter and slower sections. Recent years have seen the event shortened to come into line with the modern cloverleaf format. It may no longer be fought out across all the countries of East Africa, but it remains one of the great motorsport challenges to conquer this famous event.

Mitsubishi

World Champion Tommi Makinen completed yesterday's shakedown runs at Whistling Thorns and declared himself ready to take on the Safari Rally. After a four-day test session last week Makinen said of his Lancer Evolution: It now handles like a European gravel car rather than a specific Safari car and I'm confident we can drive it hard. The overall performance is higher than last year and our top speeds will exceed 200kph. After the recce Makinen declared the roads to be smoother than in previous years and predicted a very fast event. Team mate Freddy Loix knows only too well that there are many unexpected things that can happen on this event (he crashed last year and was forced to miss the next event while recovering). I'm not making any predictions! he joked yesterday.

Peugeot

Peugeot comes to Kenya direct from its dominant victory in Sweden but the French team knows that Kenya provides an even tougher challenge. It is completely unknown territory for us, said team director Corrado Provera. Peugeot has not had time to carry out specific testing for the event with its 206WRC but has turned to experience gained on the Paris-Dakar event and has carried out simulation runs in Senegal and at high altitude in Spain. I cannot see us being in the hunt for victory as we were in Sweden, admitted Provera. Our target is to reach the finish and, if possible, gain some points.

Ford

Ford arrived in Kenya full of confidence. Winners of this event last year, Colin McRae also ended a run of non-finishes with third place in Sweden and believes he can repeat last year's result. "The team is in high spirits after Sweden, we know the car is strong enough for Africa and I see no reason why we can't win again," he said. His team mate Carlos Sainz admits that success on the Safari comes as much from a mental attitude as from driving skill. "It's hard to judge the right speed when you are used to driving as fast as possible all the time. You always think that someone will be driving harder than you so you must adapt to the limits of the car and the tyres." Ford has entered a third car in Africa for Petter Solberg, the young Norwegian who was a late replacement last year for the injured Thomas Radstrom. "Last year was a dream for me (he finished fifth) and I think I learned more in those three days than in my entire career," he said.

Subaru

Subaru believes it has the right to be declared favourites for victory on this year's Safari Rally. The team won the event in 1997 with Colin McRae driving, Richard Burns won (for Mitsubishi) in 1998 and was leading for Subaru last year before being sidelined with suspension problems. Team mate Juha Kankkunen is a three-time Safari winner, including victory on his first attempt in 1985. "This event is something special," said the Finn. "I know I've got a good chance this year to make it four Safari wins."Burns agrees: "It's an incredible event and one that will always be special because my win in 1998 was my first World rally victory. I was unlucky last year but I'm full of confidence that I can win again."

SEAT

SEAT survived a major scare two days before the start of the Safari after Toni Gardemeister crashed the Cordoba WRC in testing. The car landed heavily on its nose and it took the mechanics all night to repair the damage and fit a new engine. Co-driver Paavo Lukander injured his neck in the accident and was flown to hospital for a precautionary check. Happily there was no serious in jury and following another check up by the team doctor this morning, he was passed fit to compete on his first Safari. Didier Auriol has competed three times on the Safari but this will be his first one in a SEAT. "I'm looking forward to it," he said. "I have always had a good result in Kenya so, if we look after the car then perhaps I can continue this trend. It's a strong car so I hope it's a rough event to make full use of it."

Skoda

Skoda has a long tradition of motorsport success but has never before contested the Safari Rally. We are going to Africa to learn," insisted team manager Pavel Janeba. "It's a unique technical challenge and, although the Octavia proved strong in Greece last year, this will be a far tougher trial of strength." The team has brought in former Toyota engineer Karl-Heinz Goldstein to oversee Skoda's African adventure and hopefully bring the kind of success he had over many years with the former African Kings. "Those who have confidence in the strength of their cars will go flat out from the start," said driver Armin Schwarz. Unfortunately we can't afford to be so bold but if we don't suffer major problems then we could finish in the top six and get Championship points for the third event in a row." Team mate Luis Climent has taken a top 10 finish here for the past two years and won Group N in 1998. It's his first Safari for Skoda but he believes his past experience will allow him to finish well again.

Hyundai

Hyundai joined the Championship in Sweden at the start of a 12-round programme this year. The team has elected to miss the Monte Carlo and Safari rallies and is therefore absent from Kenya this week. Team driver Alister McRae did, however, complete the recce for this event to gain experience for future Safari rallies.

Other Teams

FIA Teams Cup entries in Kenya comprise a pair of Subarus from the Allstars team that leads the series after Sweden. Frederic Dor has twice scored top 10 finishes in Kenya and will be joined by promising Japanese driver Toshihiro Arai. Group N front runners are expected to be Manfred Stohl and Shigeyuki Konishi. However this event sees the first appearance of two Mitsubishis, driven by Claudio Menzi and Gabriel Pozzo, backed by the Governor of Cordoba province in Argentina and a third for Roberto Sanchez supported by the Governor of Tucuman province.

STATISTICS

The 48th Safari Rally is the third of 14 events in the 2000 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers and Manufacturers.

Entries: 55 (27 Group A + 28 Group N)

Nations (first drivers):

Argentina 3, Austria 3, Belgium 1, Finland 4, France 3, Germany 2, Great Britain 7, Japan 3, Kenya 23, Malaysia 1, Norway 1, Spain 2, UAE 1, Zimbabwe 1.

Cars:

Ford 4, Honda 1, Hyundai 3, Mitsubishi 11, Nissan 1, Peugeot 3, Rover 2, SEAT 2, Skoda 2, Subaru 21, Toyota 3, VW 2.

WEATHER FORECAST

Sunny and dry

Text provided by FIA

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