Benelux team aim for Safari Classic success.

In the world of historic rallying, the names of Kurt Vanderspinnen and Erwin Berkhof have become well known over the last three years thanks to their successful partnership on rallies like 24 Hours of Ypres, the Swedish Midnight Sun Rally and the French Rallye du Var. Now they are turning their attention to the Kenya Airways Safari Classic and bringing a specially prepared Volvo 142S dating from 1974.

Kurt Vanderspinnen from Arendonk in Belgium started driving historic regularity rallies in 1996 using first an MGB roadster and then a Rover 100 and an Alfa Romeo Guilietta Sprint. He is particularly proud to have had four finishes in four attempts at the British regularity marathon Le Jog (Lands End to John O´Groats). Changing to historic special stage rallies in 2004, his first car was an NSU TT1200 with which he won his class in the Belgian national championship of that year. He then acquired a Mk1 Lotus Cortina which he has campaigned in Belgian and other international events.

His co-driver, Erwin Berkhof, is the son of the famous Dutch co-driver and navigator, Jan Berkhof. He started co-driving at seventeen years of age and, alongside Bert Dolk (several times Dutch rally champion who is also doing the Kenya Airways Safari Classic in a Volvo) Berkhof won the International Tulip Rally three years in succession between 2004 and 2006. In addition to co-driving on historic rallies, both regularity and special stage events, Berkhof also finds time to sit alongside another Dutch champion, Jan Van der Marel, on modern stage events in a Mitsubishi Evo 6 and a Porsche 997.

Both Jan Vanderspinnen and Erwin Berkhof are involved in the organisation and promotion of rallies in Belgium and Holland. In addition, Vanderspinnen´s company, Historic Rally Promotions, arranges the hire of historic cars for racing and rallying. They have a dedicated service team to look after them on the rally and their three mechanics will be travelling round the Kenya Airways Safari Classic in a Nissan Patrol that has already seen service in Kenya when it was part of the official Ford team competing with Escort Cosworth RSs and World Rally Cars in the late 1990s. The Ford team won the Safari in 1999 and now this Benelux team hopes that they will have similar success in 2007.


» Pressrelease från Safarirallyt, www.eastafricansafarirally.com.

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