Equator Rally cancelled, cloud of doubt cast over Safari Rally
From left: Equator rally podium finishers, third-placed Urshlla Gomes and Leroy Gomes, first-placed Tauseef Khan and Karan Patel and third-placed Jasmeet Chana and Ravi Chana celebrate at KWS Institute Naivasha on April 3, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Last year’s Safari was won by Finland’s Kalle Rovanpera of Toyota Gazoo Racing Team who went on to become the youngest world rally champion at 22 years of age.
- Many drivers expressed their excitement at competing in Kenya after a 19-year hiatus.
Next month’s Equator Rally, a round of the annual African Rally Championship, has been cancelled.
According to the Kenya Motorsports Federation (KMSF), delays in the release of government funding for the annual competition, that was to be held in Voi from March 17 to 19, have seen organisers throw in the towel.
The KMSF has subsequently written to the International Automobile Federation (FIA) informing the world motorsports governing body of their decision and asking for the possibility of a postponement.
However, given the tight national, continental and global rallying calendar, it is almost certain that the Equator Rally won’t run at all this year.
The Equator Rally has for the last two seasons been a traditional dry run for the World Rally Championship Safari Rally.
In the last two years, the Equator Rally ran on the WRC Safari Rally routes around Naivasha, with the KMSF having opted to try out a new competition route around Voi.
Already, preparations for the Equator Rally were in top gear with Clerk of Course Gurvir Bhabra and the organising team having completed the rally’s route and Supplementary Regulations.
Rwanda’s Christian Gakwaya had been appointed as chairman of the rally’s stewards assisted by Tanzania’s Gurvinder Bala and Kenya’s John Kamau.
The FIA had also appointed Kamau as one of the stewards of this year’s WRC Rally Croatia in a ground-breaking assignment that will see Kamau become the first African local to officiate at a top WRC round in Europe.
Last week, Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba reconstituted the WRC Safari Rally’s Steering Committee and Organising Committee, appointing rally driver Carl Tundo as chairman of the new organising team assisted by Brian Mutembei.
Namwamba himself will head the Steering Committee, assisted by Sports Principal Secretary Jonathan Mueke.
In a gazette notice dated February 10, 2023, the Cabinet Secretary revoked the appointment of a team of officials picked by his predecessor Amina Mohamed last year to serve on a four-year term until the contract signed last year between the government and the FIA runs out in 2026.
“The functions of the steering committee shall be to offer policy and organisational framework meeting international standards for hosting the FIA World Championship Rally,” the gazette notice read.
In the changes, WRC Safari Rally CEO Phineas Kimathi, who is also the chairman at KMSF and a member of the FIA Rallies Commission, was relegated to the position of secretary of the Safari’s Organising Committee whose members include former news anchor Nyatichi Nyasani, Hudson Ojiambo (youth representative), Anthony Wanjohi Kanyi, Kiki Christopher, Robert Onyonka, Muema Muindi, Gurdeep Singh Panesar and Denis Mondet.
Also, the CS ejected incumbent WRC Safari Rally Event director and veteran, retired rally driver Jim Kahumbura, picking Jagjeet Patter as his replacement.
Besides Kimathi, the only other official retained in the Safari Rally set-up is Event Secretary Hellen Shiri.
Subsequently, operations at the WRC Safari Rally remain incoherent just three months to the competition with direction now awaited from the FIA.
The cancellation of the Equator Rally and replacement of the top WRC Safari Rally officials also casts a very dark shadow over this year’s Safari that was to run as a round of the global circuit from June 22 to 25 around Nairobi and Naivasha.
Previously, nations that have altered organising teams or changed the build-up to a World Rally Championship round have been stripped of hosting rights by the FIA and Kenya could face the same fate.
Kenya only made it back to the WRC two years ago after having been out in the cold for 19 years.
Last year’s Safari was won by Finland’s Kalle Rovanpera of Toyota Gazoo Racing Team who went on to become the youngest world rally champion at 22 years of age.
Many drivers expressed their excitement at competing in Kenya after a 19-year hiatus.
“It’s like nowhere else… It’s such a special place. Incredible that we’ve been away from here for so long,” said Scott Martin who navigated Toyota’s Elfyn Evans last year.
