Just to say thank you for another fantastic happening in life.
Start to go back to normal again. After 10 days with full concentration and the adrenalin pumping in your body it take some time to get "normal" but its a nice feeling and I hope to experience it again.
Kind regards
Bjorn
Steve Perez and his Kick Rally Team placed this very nice and kind advert as a full back page in the latest issue of "Motorsport News" the weekly publication newspaper in England. The kind gesture is greatly appreciated by all the organising team and we thank Steve Perez for this great public appreciation.
NEWS OF FUTURE EVENTS : The Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally finished in Mombasa last Tuesday, December 2nd. Several high-ranking Kenya Airways executives attended the prize giving that night. They were led by the Chairman of the airline, Evanson Mwaniki......more
Mombasa, midday: Ian Duncan and Amaar Slatch win Safari Classic in Ford Mustang - A Ford has won the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2009 for the second time in succession. In 2007, it was a Ford Escort from Europe that took the overall victory but now it is the turn of the American breed to win with ..............more
Taita Hill Lodge, Monday - midday: As the rally office for the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2009 was getting set up, news came in that Ian Duncan had set fastest time and taken a further four minutes from Björn Waldegård in the first competitive section outside Nairobi at Suswa. And then more news that Waldegård .............more
Naivasha, Sunday morning: Last night in the Simba Lodge hotel, a unique presentation took place. Yvonne Mehta, widow of five times Safari winner Shekhar Mehta had brought a solid bronze model of a cheetah inscribed as the Shekhar Mehta Spirit of the Rally Award for presentation to someone whom she considered worthy. ....more
Naivasha, Saturday midday: If any proof were needed that Africa was unpredictable, when the rally office team arrived at the Sopa Lodge, Naivasha, this morning they discovered that it was raining - bit of a contrast to Amboseli who would dearly love to have some - and ....more
Photo from the 'rest day' in Amboseli wof the Tuthill Porsche Team cars being repaired at Ol Tukai Lodge. Drivers enjoyed game drives during the day while service crews prepared acrs for the four gruelling days of the rally.
Amboseli, mid-day: Avid readers of these bulletins will remember that the Ford Escort Mk1 of Jean-Michel Martin and Vincent de Raikem "retired" on the selection stage last Sunday. However, nothing daunted, they decided to continue.......more
Amboseli, Thursday afternoon: With two fastest times on the three competitive sections held today, Ian Duncan in his Ford Mustang has extended his lead over Björn Waldegård's Porsche 911. Duncan's lead is now just over five ..........more
Arusha, Wednesday, afternoon: The story of the day centres on the continued fight between the two ex-Safari Rally winners, Ian Duncan and Björn Waldegård. Today, it was Waldegård's turn to fight back taking his Porsche 911 to a win on the first competitive section and removing, at a stroke, a minute and fifty-one...............more
Arusha, Tuesday afternoon: First a correction. There are two drivers with the surname Ciaraldi driving Ford Escorts in the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2009 and it was the Escort Mk1 of Giancarlo Ciaraldi and Peter Stone that came straight to Arusha ......more
Arusha, Tuesday lunchtime: One story picked up this morning from those that came in late last night was from the Datsun 1600SSS of Peter Stoehr and
Crispin Sassoon
. Up in the Taita Hills, on the third section yesterday, they broke a rear suspension arm. "They don't normally break but this was one past being stuck back together again ! ....more
TAITA HILLS MONDAY: At the start of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2009 outside the Whitesands Hotel in Mombasa this morning, event director, Surinder Thatthi, gave a classic example of multi-tasking.....more
Mombasa, Sunday evening: The first competition section has run and, with no parc fermé tonight, some of the competitors are back and have work to do on their cars........more
Mombasa, Sunday morning: The big event last night was the Welcome Party on the lawn of the Whitesands Sarova Lodge Hotel. The crews and officials were welcomed by Surinder Thatthi, event director who introduced the patron of the 2009 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2009, D.P.Marwaha.......more
Mombasa, Saturday evening: The formalities of the last few days are now finished. At the Driver's briefing this evening, the event director, Surinder Thatthi, read out a short list of five competitors whose only lack was the completion of their service vehicle documents......more
The 2009 East African Safari Classic Rally kicks off from Mombassa tomorrow with a prologue in teh afternoon. The race starts on Monday 23rd finishing back in Mombassa on 1st December.
Photos from the Rally HQ at Sarova Whitesands Hotel in Mombasa of crews preparing for the rally start on Sunday
FACTS AND FIGURES
With a week to go before the ceremonial start beneath the crossed elephants tusks on Moi Avenue in Mombasa, the crews and officials of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally are all ready to go. Documentation will get under way at the Whitesands Hotel north of Mombasa .......more
Erik Comas former F1 driver with Ligier and Prost teams standing by his latest Renault Alpine A110 built for his customer Michelle De Nora from Italy. With the rains now very heavy in parts of Kenya these light 700kg Alpines might do very well in the wet conditions. Comas Historic Racing which has only done regularity rallies in the past has become very heavily involved in the build of these two gravel cars built for speed and is looking forward to this adventure in Africa.
WORLD CHAMPION WILL COMPETE ON SAFARI
Just last week, a deal was struck whereby the 1979 World Rally Champion, Björn Waldegård, will definitely compete in a Porsche 911 on the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally in just over two.......more
Spectacular stages are in store for the forty-five crews on the start list who will tackle the ten-day route the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally starting on November 23rd. The organizers have just completed the production of all the final documents including the .......more
Have you ever seen a Citroen DS21 fly like this? This is the level of preparation the entrants of the KQ Safari Classic put in to make their cars better. It will be a great competition.
Tuthill Porsche set to tackle the Worlds greatest rally
Francis Tuthill Ltd is geared up to tackle the Kenyan Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2009 and with no less than five Porsches in their arsenal this professional outfit has a mammoth task at hand for the marathon ten day event which takes place at the end of November....read more
Albert Michiels and Patrick Deconnick's Porsche 911 ready after testing to be shipped by WEC Lines from Antwerp to Mombasa. This team has considerable expericence of the Safari and have never been better prepared as the car shows.
Former Formula 1 driver with Ligier and Prost, Erik Comas putting his Renault Alpine A110 through a through test in France before shipping the car to Kenya next week. The last time the Renault Alpine came to the Safari Rally was in 1974 when the cars suffered from overheating and vey low ground clearance. Erik has built the Alpine to solve these problems and is confident of a good placing in the event with his drivers Michelle De Nora and Charles Fermenich.
The Ford Escort Mark 1 of Aziz Tejpar (England) and Kenyan, Andy Nagi ready for shipping to Kenya next week for the 2009 Kenya Airways Safari Classic. Tejpar's father was a former DAF team driver in the old East African Safari rallies in the seventies.
Kronos Racing has built two Porsche 911 rally cars for their drivers Jean-Pierre Mondron and Theirry Latre du Bosqueau. Both drivers are from Belgium and the photos show the two cars in their workshops ready for shipping to Kenya.
Ian Duncan enters KQ Safari Classic
Former Safari Rally winner and multiple Kenya National Rally champion, Ian Duncan
has entered the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2009 again after the
last attempt in 2007. .........more
Ian Duncan portrait
Ford Mustang in action photo
Comas
Historic Racing workshops in Valence, France. The first gravel specs Renault Alpine
A110 being prepared in the fore ground for the gruelling rally in November 2009.
The cars will run by Erik Comas and his team for the drivers Michelle De Nora
and Charles Ferminch. The Renault Alpine A110 last competed in the 1974 Safari
Rally with drivers Darniche and Chatriot and both cars did not finish the event.
The
43rd entry received for the 2009 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally
is from Frederic Daunat and Guy Chriqui in a Citroen DS21. This entry is very
nostalgic for the last time a Citroen DS21 model was in 1962.
Raju Kishinani (left) - Director of EASR and Surinder Thatthi (middle) receving
the contract for the title sponsorship from Mr. Titus Naikuni - MD and CEO of
Kenya Airways.........read more.
The world's greatest classic
rally continues As entries continued to arrive over the Christmas holiday,
it is evident that the 2009 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic may see
an important piece of rally history .....click
here for more
A view of Lake Bogoria, a soda
ash lake in the Great Rift Valley just 50m off the route of the 2009 Classic Safari.
The height of the escarpment is about 700m above the lake. Awesome view, Africa
at its best !
Nick
Mason and Adrian Grinsted from England personally came to Nairobi to hand in their
entry for the 2009 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally. Nick and Adrian
brought out their service crew who helps them to build their rally car to give
him an indication of the conditions the car has to be built for. They drove two
section of the 2007 rally route to get an idea. They will be much better prepared
in 2009 for the "Worlds Toughest Classic Rally" Photo Nick Mason and
Adrian Grinsted giving their form to Event Director Surinder Thatthi at a Nairobi
hotel.
The East African Safari Rally
2009 proudly announced the appointment of "the Patron of the Event"
today. He is Mr. DP Marwaha, today aged 84 who was a Class winner in the first
Cornation East African Safari Rally in 1953 (no overall winner was declared in
1953) driving a Czech built Tatra T-600 co-driven by Vic Preston Senior. So
dominant was the driving of Mr. Marwaha that he was the overall winner the following
two editions in 1954 driving a VW Beetle and in 1955 driving a Ford Zephyr always
still co-driven by Vic Preston Senior. Mr. Marahwa now lives in Iringa, Tanzania
and still drives his own car today! Above pictured is Mr. DP Marwaha with
the Event Director Surinder Thatthi (on left) and Rally Manager Ashok Bhalla (on
right) in the EASR Offices on 24th November 2008. Click
here to read the full story
The
rally route decending the "famous" Mbulu Esscarpment in Tanzania south
of the famous Lake Manyara. This trecherous section was last used in the 1972
East African Safari Rally and will be used again in 2009 after 37 years !! See
more photos of the Route Survey in the Photo Gallery.
First entries for the 2009
Kenya Airways East African Safari Rally have started to come in.....more
Only
Bjorn Waldergard can drive a car at speed and jump this high with a broken lower
control arm which is hanging under the car and the wheels are flapping with the
wheel alignment totally out !! This was in the Suswa section on Day 4 of the 2007
Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally in December 2007.