• Tundo and his longtime navigator, Tim Jessop, became the first Kenyan crew to step on a WRC2 podium when they returned 12th overall on the Platinum Jubilee WRC Safari in Naivasha last year.
• The Kenyans are among the 29 drivers entered for the event, which features nine Rally1 competitors comprising three Toyotas, three Hyundais and three M-Sport Fords.
Image: FILE
Local drivers Karan Patel and Carl “Flash” Tundo will take on elite WRC2 regulars as the Safari Rally Kenya moves back to its traditional Easter weekend at the end of this month.
Karan and Tundo will be back on the iconic African fixture following their highly competitive outing last year which saw the latter rack up a WRC2 podium spot.
Tundo and his longtime navigator, Tim Jessop, became the first Kenyan crew to step on a WRC2 podium when they returned 12th overall on the Platinum Jubilee WRC Safari in Naivasha last year.
Driving a Skoda Fabia Rally2, five-time ARC Safari Rally champions finished third behind the winning all-Polish crew of Kajetan Kajetanowicz/M. Szczepaniak (Skoda Fabia Evo) and all-Czech team of Martin Prokop/Z.Jurka in a Fiesta Mk I.
Another all-Polish crew of Daniel Chwist and K. Heller in a Fabia RS clocked 4:52:52.1 to finish fourth.
Tundo’s fairy-tale result in Naivasha in 2023 was his second podium finish in the FIA WRC support categories after he finished third in WRC3 in 2021 and ninth overall, thus scoring WRC points. Tundo will be hoping to resume his good run on the iconic event.
Gus Greensmith and Kajetan Kajetanowicz will start their 2024 WRC2 campaigns on this month’s Safari Rally Kenya, both behind the wheels of Skoda Fabia RS Rally2s
Britain’s Greensmith finished as runner-up in the championship in 2023, and will seek to go one better in his Toksport-run machine this term, while reigning WRC2 Challenger-class champion Kajetanowicz has been the dominant force in Kenya in recent years, and returns in search of his third consecutive Safari victory.
The Kenyans are among the 29 drivers entered for the event, which features nine Rally1 competitors comprising three Toyotas, three Hyundais and three M-Sport Fords.
Flying Finn Kalle Rovanperä is among the star attractions, back in Safari
to occupy Toyota’s third car in Kenya.
The i20 N Hyundai outfit starts the rally buoyed by Neville’s lead on the 2024 log and Finn Esapekka Lappi’s victory at Rally Sweden.
Lappi will be hoping for back-to-back WRC wins as he returns to the three car Hyundai line-up.
Jourdan Serderidis is the addition to M-Sport’s roster, which brings the Puma Rally1 car count to three for the first time this year.
Oliver Solberg, WRC2 winner on Rally Sweden, will make the second points-scoring start of his campaign on the Safari, as will Hyundai’s Nicolas Ciamin, while Charles Munster — younger brother of M-Sport driver Grégoire Munster — will also drive an i20N. Oliver Solberg is tied for the lead of WRC2 after Sweden and has an opportunity to make it his own in Kenya.
The iconic Safari is by and large the toughest event on the FIA 13-rally calendar which traditionally starts with Rallye Monte Carlo.
Safari features long straight roads where speeds could top 200kph contrast with rocky rutted tracks and deep fesh-fesh sand that can reduce cars to little more than walking pace.
And, to add to the Kenyan excitement, rains are predicted during the four-day Easter encounter. This could turn the route into treacherous mud baths.
The rally starts in Nairobi on March 28 before heading North West to Nakuru County for some gruelling special stages around lakes Naivasha and Elmenteita before finishing at Naivasha’s Hell’s Gate Power Stage on March 31.
The rev-off returns to the KICC from Uhuru Park and then head to Kasarani for the Super Special Stage, the event’s first competitive stage.