|
  The Worlds Greatest Rally.
PRESSRELEASE
 Of all the major rallies in the world, few have such a widespread reputation as the East African Safari. The event was first run in 1953 by some car enthusiasts who used the holiday granted to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 1st to run a motoring event that they called "The Coronation Safari". With time controls only at the start and finish, a 3,000 kilometre (1,875 mile) route, and set times rendered impossible by the rainy conditions, it proved to be a great success. Over the next seven years, it gradually grew and became more sophisticated. One major difference to European events, apart from the road conditions, was that the Safari catered only for standard cars, and these were often put into classes on their Nairobi price rather than cylinder capacity.
Gradually the European drivers and teams were attracted to this event since winning it had already proved to help international sales for VW, Mercedes, Ford and Peugeot. But the overseas drivers found it hard to get on terms with the local experts and right through the 1960s the likes of Erik Carlsson, Paddy Hopkirk, Eugen Böhringer, Tom Trana, Pat Moss, Rauno Aaltonen all failed to take that tantalising win. They often led the event but at the finish it was local men like Nick Nowicki, Bert Shankland, Peter Hughes, Edgar Herrmann and Robin Hillyar who went home with the trophies.
Weight of numbers plus hard learned experience was bound to tell in the long run and in 1972, Hannu Mikkola finally became the first overseas driver to win the Safari in his Ford Escort RS1600. Second that year was another European, Sobieslaw Zasada, driving a Porsche 911. By this time, the Safari had become a very big event in every meaning of the phrase. Firstly, it was covering some 6,400 kilometres (4,000 miles) and stretched over all three countries in East Africa - Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Secondly, it was attracting up to a hundred entries each year, of which many were from factory teams. Lastly and not least, it was also inducted as a round of the new World Rally Championship that started in 1973. The media coverage and the reputation of the Safari was enormous.
As the years went on, Uganda and Tanzania dropped away and the Safari ran entirely within Kenya with Nairobi as the traditional start and finish location. The route gradually shortened until in the mid-1980s it was some 5,200 kilometres (3,250 miles) but the ingenuity of the organisers and the introduction of larger number of time controls meant that the rally lost none of it tough reputation. There had been plenty of local wins in the 1970s with Joginder Singh and Shekhar Mehta clocking up seven wins between them - Mehta winning the rally four times in succession for Datsun between 1979 and 1982 - but the general trend was for overseas drivers from the factory teams to win. When the four wheel drive Group B cars arrived in the 1980s, they were not immediately dominant and conventional cars like the Opel Ascona 400 and the Toyota Celica Turbo continued to win. Indeed it was not until Group B had been banned at the end of 1986 and the new Group A cars were introduced that a four wheel drive car finally won the Safari. This distinction went again to Hannu Mikkola who drove an Audi 200 Quattro to success in 1987.
The effect of the Group B ban had been to force rally organisers in other parts of the world to vastly improve their crowd control and rules came in to reduce, among other things, the length of World Championship Rallies. These rules hit the Safari quite hard as it was an event that had traditionally been decided over long distances and with timing to the nearest minute. Now it was required to have short stages on guaranteed closed roads and timing to the second. As it moved into the 21st Century, its route shrunk to 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) and the need to have the whole rally rigorously controlled had forced up the cost of running so that it was concentrated in a very confined area of Kenya. As well as taking away much of the adventure and the style of the old events, the budget could not be found to keep it alive and, after the fiftieth edition in 2002, the East African Safari ceased to exist as a World Championship event.
The King is dead. Long live the King !
Fortunately for rallying, Mike Kirkland, Surinder Thatthi and several of the old competitors and organisers thought that it would be a good idea to run an old-style Safari - with some suitable changes - featuring cars that were around in the hey-day of the Safari. Out of this idea sprung the 2003 event, which proved a very popular success both with local teams and crews from abroad. With help from Kenya Airways and WEC Lines, both the competitors and their cars were conveyed to and from Kenya. The event ran again successfully in 2005 and with the announcement of the 2007 edition, looks set to become a regular feature on the calendar of classic events.
» Pressrelease från Safarirallyt, www.eastafricansafarirally.com.
» Denna samt tidigare pressreleaser, se Pressrelease
Följ helgens rallyn:
Publicerad:
|
|
Bäcklund körde hem Strömkarlsrallyt.
 Sex raka sträcksegrar tog Kenneth Bäcklund när Strömkarlsrallyt inleddes, först ut tre sträckor dubbelt följt av en avslutning som kördes en gång som ss7, allt på för rallyt kända vägar.
Bäcklund hade Joakim Rydholm efter sig på flertalet av sträckorna, just Rydholm blev den som vann avslutande s...Publicerad: 2025-08-30 18:49:30
Åkerman totalsnabbast i Engh Mek-rallyt.
 Bärke MK med Engh Mek-rallyt ut från Smedjebacken där tävlande för SuperCupen, Nedre Norras DM och Finess Onotade Rallyserie deltog vilket gav 17 olika klassvinnare. Start direkt med 17km följt av 3km och avslutning över 12km.
Johan Wesslén, Jari Liiten och Patrik Åkerman vann de tre sträckorna t...Publicerad: 2025-08-30 17:36:00
Så gick det uppför Hammarbacken.
Ragundalens RC körde deltävling i Hälsingeserien, två åk uppför Hammarbacken gällde för lördagen där enskilt bästa åk gällde för slutresultat. Marcus Nilsson tog segern sekunden före Marcus Frändén, tre tiondelar till för Roger Westin.
Simon Olsson fyra totalt och bäst i 2wd som vann 0,87 sekund ...Publicerad: 2025-08-30 17:12:38
Unik chans att träffa WRC-vinnare Oliver Solberg när Rally Sweden släpper biljetterna för 2026.
 Måndag 1 september klockan 09:00 öppnar biljettluckorna till nästa års VM-deltävling i Umeå. Rally Sweden 2026 genomförs 12–15 februari och med biljettsläppet kommer även möjligheten att få träffa Oliver Solberg på plats under VM-dagarna. De 99 första som säkrar ett special-Rallypass får ta del av e...Publicerad: 2025-08-30 12:04:39
Söndagsrally med Lundasprinten.
 Söndagsrally med Lundasprinten, ett samarrangemang mellan Lunds AC och Arlövs MC för Södras RS-DM. En sträcka på asfalt körs två gånger i varje riktning - varje omgång består av tre varv så totalt 18km special. Totalt 42 tävlande fördelat över nio klasser.
Knappt 20 bilar genom de tre trimmade 2w...Publicerad: 2025-08-30 09:58:11
Flera rallyn att följa under lördagen, bl.a. Engh Mek Rallyt och Strömkarlsrallyt.
 80-talet bilar går för Engh Mek Rallyt hos Bärke MK där SuperCupen, Nedre Norras DM och Finess Onotade Rallyserie kör om poängen över tre sträckor. Rallyradion sänder live.
Med 70-talet tävlande går Strömkarlsrallyt hos SMK Trollhättan, där totalt sju sträckor varav tre går dubbelt när Västras DM...Publicerad: 2025-08-30 05:58:54
Rovanperä toppar Ueno Rally del Paraguays - Solberg sexa efter punktering.
 Kalle Rovanperä startade bäst när Ueno Rally del Paraguays första sträcka avverkades under eftermiddagen, samtidigt startade problemen för M-Sport där Gregorie Munster var av vägen och tappade 40-talet minuter - hos Toyota var det Takamoto Katsuta som körde punktering.
Rovanperä bäst, men Four...Publicerad: 2025-08-29 22:22:34
14 mil special väntar - strax start i Ueno Rally del Paraguay.
 Sträckorna Cambyreta, Nueva Alborada, Yerbatera och Autodromo mäter sju mil i Ueno Rally del Paraguay, då är Autodromo just en kort publiksträcka vilket gör de andra sträckorna än mer utmanande. Längst i hela rallyt är ss3, Yerbatera på 30km!
Första sträckan inleds 13:03 Svensk tid, sedan rullar ...Publicerad: 2025-08-29 12:31:49
Söndagsrally, Brukssvängen i Hallstahammar.
 7-klubbars kör på med Brukssvängen där MSK Hammaren står för arrangemanget, närmare 16km är special där en sträcka körs tre gånger under söndagen.
Ett 60-tal åkare genom tio klasser för söndagens rally, för 4wd klassen Pontus Florin, Mikael Holmgren, Hannah Jakobsson och Kent Andersson bland åkar...Publicerad: 2025-08-29 11:11:29
Sju sträckor med 80 bilar för lördagens Strömkarlsrally.
 En tät och tuff andra halva av både Västras DM och Mega Rally Cup när det tävlar flitigt under hösten, Strömkarlsrallyt hos SMK Trollhättan på lördag där 35km special fördelats på sju sträckor, då bland annat tre sträckor som går två gånger och nog kan vi förvänta oss västsvenska klassikern - Kabelv...Publicerad: 2025-08-29 08:55:48
|
| |
Strömkarlsrallyt:
Ueno Rally del Paraguay:
