Safari Rallyt; Putting things in context.

For the interest of Safari Classic competitors and fans, this is the text of Jerry Williams´ column published yesterday in Motorsport News, a leading UK weekly motoring newspaper. For those of you who may not know, Britain´s contribution to the FIA World Rally Championship, the Wales Rally GB, starts on Friday and provides its competitors with 360km of stages spread over three days. The Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 has just reached its halfway point and still has four days and 725km of stages to run when it re-starts on Friday. The longest stage on the Wales Rally GB is just under 30km while on the Safari Classic the longest stage is 154km.

And Bjorn Waldegård is currently leading the Safari Classic from Stig Blomqvist .. Now read on and enjoy.

VIEW FROM THE WORLD STAGE : Jerry Williams, Motorsport News

Yes, I know, you don´t have to tell me. This morning I should be relishing the prospect of Rally GB.

Unfortunately, as you know, I see the 75th anniversary running of our premier motor sport event as a tragically lost opportunity.

And as I checked the trusty Octavia RS´s tyre pressures on Sunday ready for a week of motorways and lanes, I couldn´t help but reflect wistfully on another lost opportunity.

At that moment, those former world champions and RAC Rally winners Bjorn Waldegard and Stig Blomqvist were starting the East African Classic Safari Rally.

In a better world such star talents would be among many others in Cardiff for the 75th this Saturday, wowing the crowds with high-speed demos in cars from their era.

And in a better world the Safari itself would still be in the WRC.

For Waldegard, it was always special. Between 1971 and 1992 he went 19 times, winning four, two of them with Fred Gallagher, who described him as "the most complete driver I´ve ever known".

I once asked Bjorn how many days he had spent in Kenya testing, recceing and rallying. "You know," he said: "I have actually worked that out. Over my career it is three years!"

And therein, of course, lies one of the reasons - expense -- why the Safari became a dinosaur that the WRC modernisers eventually forced into extinction.

There were the special cars, the months of testing, the obsessive recces, the spotter helicopters, the aircraft, the dedicated Safari teams. When George Donaldson ran the Toyota operation in Kenya, he lived in Nairobi´s Serena Hotel virtually six months of the year - all for one rally!

Then the organisers got behind on FIA fees -- never a good idea. But a bigger catalyst was the insane speeds. Averages of 85-90 mph were commonplace - on open roads. In 1996 the distance was halved and it was made a stage rally in a vain bid to impose order. That year the fastest average was Tommi Makinen´s 103.60 mph over a 68-mile stage!

But Colin McRae always maintained that, done differently, you could run a Safari today. "Quite simple, really" he would say. "You cut testing to a minimum, you don´t recce or practice, you get standard route notes and drive accordingly."

Of course, no-one wanted to think that through and the WRC´s greatest challenge was over.

But you can´t keep a much-loved event down and now it´s the Safari Classic. Competition can be fierce. Bjorn and Stig both drive specially built 100 grand Escort Mk 1s, the route is back to over 2,700 miles with 910 miles competitive and there are 58 crews. One stage is 97 miles long.

It includes all those magical places that used to shimmer with excitement and sometimes menace - the Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Naivasha, the Taita Hills, the Great Rift Valley, Mount Kilimanjaro.

Down in our corner of South Wales this weekend, such names will be echoing round my head, one more reminder of how much has been stripped out of the World Championship.


» Pressrelease från Safarirallyt, www.eastafricansafarirally.com.

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