In current weeks loads of dialogue and brainstorming has targeted on how rallying’s high tier may be improved on a number of ranges. This has largely been orchestrated by present World Rally Championship drivers who consider it’s time for the self-discipline to make adjustments to develop. Technical and sporting rules, occasion codecs and sequence promotion are all subjects which were debated in a number of conferences between the drivers, the WRC Promoter and the FIA, with these concepts now being collated and investigated.
Nonetheless, the Safari Rally is a first-rate instance the place the WRC has succeeded and is a cornerstone occasion that it should hold shifting ahead. Similar to competing on the snow of Rally Sweden, the Safari Rally is likely one of the WRC’s distinctive promoting factors. A condensed model of the well-known rally that started in 1953, it returned to the WRC after a 19-year hiatus in 2021 as a part of the championship’s push to refresh its calendar with a bunch of basic occasions together with the Acropolis Rally, Rally New Zealand and Rally Japan.
There may be an elephant within the room after all. There may be an argument that this new-look Safari Rally pales compared with the earlier relentless 5,000km open street marathon throughout the Kenya wilderness, which offered the final word endurance take a look at for drivers, groups and machines.
Nicky Grist, a three-time Safari Rally winner as a co-driver for Colin McRae, made simply this level forward of final week’s rally whereas additionally acknowledging that the occasion stays a problem. Writing on Twitter, he known as the schedule “a shadow of its former self”.
“Longest stage 31km? Gone are the times of 150km street sections, gruelling 5 days of competitors the place getting the automotive again to the end was the most important problem a driver may face,” he wrote. Grist later added: “Endurance apart. The Safari Rally nonetheless has some challenges for the trendy breed of WRC rally vehicles.”
There isn’t any hiding from the truth that the present Safari Rally options solely 355km of aggressive phases. However as final weekend proved, the rally continues to be some of the difficult occasions in international motorsport.
All 10 Rally1 vehicles encountered points inflicted by the situations and no person had a faultless run. Winner Sebastien Ogier needed to overcome a lack of hybrid energy, three punctures, a close to miss with a zebra, dropping his tailgate to a tree, an overheating situation and a rock smashing his windscreen. He noticed off Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanpera by a mere 6.7s to assert a second Safari win.
PLUS: How Ogier held his nerve to repeat Toyota’s Safari WRC rout
Ogier needed to dig deep to see off Rovanpera for victory after an eventful rally filled with twists and turns that underlines its value on the calendar
Photograph by: Toyota Racing
Many want to see the Safari function longer phases, and that’s truthful sufficient. Who wouldn’t need to see extra of the world’s greatest drivers being examined to the restrict? Nonetheless, budgets and the way in which sport is consumed now have modified. Like how most sports activities now have a shorter variant, the WRC has developed right into a extra sprint-based system in comparison with the previous.
But the Safari Rally continues to be the final word problem and crucial for the WRC. One of many causes individuals are drawn to the self-discipline is the sense of journey it supplies, and few are greater than hustling a WRC automotive by means of one of many harshest but most stunning environments on earth. The Safari in that respect gives an analogous enchantment to the Dakar Rally; the 2 occasions are about as wild and distant motor racing will get.
Three-time Safari winner Juha Kankkunen attended final weekend’s occasion to drive Toyota’s new hybrid-powered Hilux that’s aimed on the African market. He’s additionally in settlement.
“It’s the hardest rally on the earth. Even now it’s brief, it’s at all times particular,” Kankkunen informed Autosport. “Now all of the rallies are made in the identical mould, however nonetheless you’ve got particular rallies like this.
“You’ll be able to’t evaluate it to the {old} days. It’s important to evaluate it to the opposite rallies within the calendar and that makes the distinction” Juha Kankkunen
“It’s nonetheless robust. Should you evaluate it now with Finland, it’s a totally different sort of street right here. Even if you’re solely drive 350km, it’s nonetheless totally different to a flat gravel street, so it’s robust for the vehicles and for the drivers as they’ve to focus on all of the stones.
“You’ll be able to’t evaluate it to the {old} days. It’s important to evaluate it to the opposite rallies within the calendar and that makes the distinction.”
Autosport was lucky to enterprise out to the Soysambu stage in a helicopter to witness the situations the drivers have been dealing with first-hand. From the air as we flew into the stage, it’s simple to know why this is likely one of the hardest occasions on the planet. The roads sprawl by means of the jungle and traverse huge high-speed open plains, that includes a myriad of surfaces. There may be rugged robust bedrock that may shake the vehicles and crews to their core, making pacenotes extremely troublesome to learn. If that’s survived, there’s at all times a excessive threat of rocks shredding tyres.
The floor can then change immediately to gentle fesh-fesh sand that may trigger drivers to get caught, or disorient those that get misplaced in their very own mud. Worse nonetheless, the mud may be scooped up and ingested by the engine, which might sap energy and even finish a rally prematurely.
The fesh-fesh sand is yet one more distinctive problem crews need to face on the Safari
Photograph by: Tomek Kaliński
Kenya’s climate patterns are unpredictable too. They will render some components of the stage bone dry whereas others are like ice due to water holes and dust. It’s a full assault on the senses.
The roads range in width from tremendous slender tracks with grass rising within the centre to extensive open plains the place a number of traces may be taken. Our go to was to 1 such space that was additionally residence to a bunch of zebra and antelope, a becoming backdrop to this fifth-gear blast to the subsequent jungle part. It’s solely whenever you stand there within the open panorama that you just perceive simply how distant a location that is and why the drivers and followers love this journey into the wilderness. If one thing goes fallacious, you’re by yourself with solely the wildlife for firm.
Earlier than you see the automotive, you possibly can hear a relentless buzzing that turns into progressively louder as a 500-horsepower Rally1 automotive approaches, with none trace of a raise. This full dedication foot-to-floor strategy whereas bouncing over the numerous bumps, a rooster tail of mud in tow, really is a sight to behold. It’s simple to see why footage of the vehicles on full tilt right here typically goes viral and why the drivers label this because the hardest occasion of the 12 months. 4 days of those situations is a psychological and bodily take a look at that also lives as much as the historic Safari Rally.
Final weekend’s Seventieth-anniversary occasion ticked all of the bins, and after practically 20 years with out the occasion on the WRC, we ought to be grateful that this distinctive problem reminiscent of the glory days nonetheless exists.
It was a really unpredictable occasion that created tales after each stage and made for compelling viewing for those who had entry to the published. However herein lies the subsequent hurdle for the long run.
For these with entry, the footage that includes heroic helicopter digital camera photographs of vehicles blasting by means of Kenya’s wild terrain is must-watch tv. A excessive degree of engagement on social media offered additional proof that the Safari Rally’s journey facet strikes a chord with followers and could be a highly effective hook to draw a brand new viewers to rallying. The following process is to capitalise on the Safari Rally’s successes and replicate its enchantment.
The excellent news for rally followers the world over is the Safari Rally has a contract in place till 2026 a minimum of. Judging from the Positive response from the brand new authorities in energy in Kenya, it ought to be set to remain for the long run.
Whether or not or not the WRC can transplant what makes Safari so particular onto different occasions, its place on the calendar is significant in safeguarding the championship’s enchantment
Photograph by: M-Sport