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WRC Safari will be a navigator’s rally, officials say

Sunday, April 11th, 2021 23:01 | By
Sleeping Warrior section on the WRC Safari Rally Route. Photo/PD Anwar Sidi

Edwin Otieno

The technical and picturesque nature of WRC Safari Rally Kenya will not be for the faint hearted.

Deputy Clerk of the Course Nazir Yakub when asked to describe the  route course explained: "Generally, the rally is a navigators affair, let's be honest about that-nurmber one, for the pure reason that navigators will have to control their drivers not to break their cars.

This is not Wales and neither is it Finland. It is Safari. It's a long game. It might be a short rally from the look of things but you have to think long when driving on Safari.

You might come with a maximum attack strategy on a first outing, but all in all, it will not be an easy ride," Nazir says.

Nazir noted that sections on both Naivasha and Soysambu Conservancy sides are both technical "and basically all the same".

"This are all degraded lava fields and the same soil profile. It's at the floor of the Great Rift Valley for both and the surface is all the same. The thing that automatically changes is the amount of rockery on South Lake side and the terrain which is more hilly as you know.

This year's WRC Safari Rally Kenya will be interesting in many facets.
For one, the current crop of WRC P1 and P2 drivers are yet to compete on African soil and Nazir believes "it'll be a completely new challenge".


Nazir believes WRC drivers will have no choice but to think of the last day of the rally.

This year's Safari will culminate with the Hell's Gate power stage. Nazir believes our locals will have to drive a lot more aggressively on the race weekend.

"For our local boys it's a challenge because they are competing against people on top of the game.

We might have a little awareness of the surface but when you're completing against the very best drivers in the world it's something different. The challenge of world drivers is that they will have to keep up with the best of the best in the world," Nazir said.

The most interesting aspect of Soysambu Conservancy section is the picturesque landscape which has the famous Sleeping Warrior hill and indeed Lake Elementaita which is a heaven of Flamengo birds.

The Hill behind the stage is the famous "Sleeping Warrior", always asleep but very lethal on the rally weekend. The last few Kilometres of Sleeping Warrior will be a tough rocky ride.

Elementaita will be a 15kms stage, Soysambu 20km and Sleeping Warrior 32. The volcanic ash Kedon stage, which is the longest stage, is 33km.

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