Entries for the 2005 East African Safari Rally have now closed and the world’s greatest classic car rally has attracted an impressive entry of 48 crews representing 17 nations. Topping the entry list are a trio of former World Rally Champions and the event, which runs from 1-10 December, once again looks set to provide spectacular action in the beautiful landscapes of Kenya and Tanzania.
“We are absolutely delighted with the quality of the entries,” commented Event Director Mike Kirkland, “and having three ex-World Rally Champions trying their hardest to beat the best Kenyan drivers reminds us all of the old days. It looks set to be a great event.”
Winner of the 2003 East African Safari Rally, Rob Collinge, will lead the crews over the start ramp in Mombasa on Thursday 1 December with fellow Kenyan and 1994 Safari Rally winner Ian Duncan hot on his heels. Behind them, however, the battle for honours between a host of former rivals will be intense.
Juha Kankkunen, who won the FIA World Rally Championship in 1986, 1987, 1991 and 1993, is a veteran of 12 Safari Rallies and claimed victories in what was universally regarded as the toughest World Championship event in 1985, 1991 and 1993. Twenty years on, he will again be pitted against former team-mate and 1979 World Rally Champion Björn Waldegård, the pair competing in Datsun and Porsche machinery respectively. Sweden’s Stig Blomqvist, another Safari Rally podium finisher, is also sure to be in the fight, the 1984 World Rally Champion piloting a Ford Escort with co-driver Ana Goni.
French businessman Frederic Dor will be piloting another Porsche 911, this year co-driven by Paul Howarth, Team Manager of the Subaru World Rally Team. Dor is a regular rally and race campaigner, has won the French Gravel Rally Championship and finished seventh overall in the 1999 Safari Rally in Championship-winning Subaru machinery. He also claimed second in the 2003 East African Safari Rally.
A host of crews from the 2003 event have returned and the impressive list of entries also includes the all-Danish crew of Soren and Mads Kjaer, who will be running car number 2015 to promote the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. For this legendary event, they and a number of private companies have invested in a white 1971 Porsche 911 and each day of the rally will be dedicated to one of the eight Millennium Development Goals through activities in Denmark, Kenya and Tanzania.
In total, the 10-day East African Safari Rally covers 4,504 kilometres with an increase in competitive distance from 1,553 in 2003 to 1,700 kilometres this year. Thirty-one competitive sections lie in wait, the longest being 113 kilometres and the shortest, in Nairobi, just 9.9 kilometres.
The 2005 East African Safari Rally, which has been scheduled outside the international rally calendar and during one of the most beautiful months in East Africa, promises to deliver yet more stunning and memorable action, underlining its status as one of the greatest classic car rallies of the modern era.
