History

According to a legendary and much-quoted conversation between Eric Cecil and his cousin Neil Vincent, the Safari Rally was apparently born. Vincent was a true motorsport devotee but even so he refused to compete at the newly built Langa Langa circuit. ‘I can imagine nothing more boring than driving round and round the same piece of track. But if you will organise an event where we get into our cars, slam the door, go halfway across Africa and back, and the first car home is a winner, I’ll be in it.’

Together with Ian Craigie, the Competitions Secretary, Cecil set about trying to encourage the Competitions Committee to agree to organising a long distance rally. Their advance came with the death of King George VI and the coronation of the new Queen, Elizabeth II in June 1953. Their proposal to organise an East African rally to pay tribute to the new Queen was accepted by the Management Committee and the ‘Coronation Rally’ starting from Nairobi (Kenya) around Lake Victoria through Uganda and Tanganyika and returning back into Kenya was established.

The East African Safari Rally has continued every year thereafter with much interest from international rally federations. In 1957 the Paris based ‘Federation Internationale de l’ Automobile marked the East African Rally on its international motor sport calendar and there was genuine surprise amongst the REAAA. The date of the event had also moved forward from the end of May to the Easter weekend so as not to interfere with other European events.

In the early 1960’s when independence was gained by the three African countries the historic rally route was changed. It would still pass through the Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya however organisers were to rotate the start and finish of the rally to include Kampala and Dar es Salaam.

In 1969 the Tanzanian government closed its borders and the rally was no longer allowed to go though Tanzania. Not only were the borders closed but the government refused to let its residents compete which greatly affected many local drivers including the Tanzanian hero Bert Shankland. In 1971 Tanzania once again opened its borders but was insisting that the rally start and finish in Dar es Salaam the next year. That year was also marked with the first ever all-international crew to win the safari rally: Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palman a Ford Escort RS 1600.