The legendary Safari Rally Kenya, the most famous rally in the world, returned to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2022 for the first time since 2002.
Back then the Safari Rally was a very different beast to the rally as it is now. With stages over 100 kms long in extremely rural areas, it was run on open roads. It was common to come accros wildlife and other road users. Each crew was required to have a dedicated helicopter to fly ahead and warn of any obstacles, but running the event was expensive and difficult to contain. Eventually in 2002 the event was removed from the calender. In stark contrast to todays sprint events, the Safari was an endurance event with an overall rally length of over 1000kms. The gaps between the cars by the end of the rally was usually measureable in minutes rather thans seconds or 10ths of seconds like it is now. The last time the rally was run in the World Rally Championship in 2002 it was won by the one and only Colin McRae with Nicky Grist on the notes in the Ford Focus RS WRC 02.
Today the Safari Rally has been updated to fit the format of the modern World Rally Championship. It does still share the same character of demanding dirt roads and scenery.
In Safari Rally 2022 none of the WRC’s frontline drivers have experienced the rally previously.
Click here for the 2023 Safari rally route
Click here for the 2024 Safari rally route