Safari Rallyt; Safari debut for Steve Perez.

For leading UK rallyman, Steve Perez, travelling down to make his debut on the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally was set to be a bit of rush. The reason ? He was competing over this weekend in the Roger Albert Clark Rally with his Lancia Stratos. The event has similarities to the Safari Classic in that it is a partial recreation of the old RAC Rally, very much in the spirit of that old event, and open to cars that are at least twenty-six years old. The catch was that the RAC Rally does not finish until Monday afternoon in Carlisle in the north of England - and the documentation and shakedown for the Safari Classic is on Thursday morning in Mombasa so that no time needed to be lost in heading south. In fact, the sad bit is that the Lancia Stratos decided to release its driver from three full days in the British forests on the Saturday morning when, after only four stages, its engine failed. There is now plenty of time for Steve Perez to reach Mombasa and start getting acquainted with, for him, the unfamiliar East African roads.

Perez is competing on the Safari Classic in a Datsun 260Z that has been prepared in the UK by BTR Preparations. One might imagine that with this being Perez´s first Safari and with the car prepared by an English company, Safari success might elude them. But the leading light at BTR is Tim Ashton who was a mechanic with Opel for seven Safaris during the 1980s and indeed when they won the Safari in 1983 with Ari Vatanen. Further expertise in the preparation of the Datsun has come from Star Motorsport in Leicestershire where Laurence Evans has prepared Datsun 240Z and 260Zs before and ran one in the 2005 Safari Classic. As with his Lancia Stratos and the Ford Focus WRC that he drives on British events, the Datsun will carry the Vodka Kick identification of Perez´s company, Global Brands Limited

Incidentally, the RAC Rally is currently being led by Steve Bannister in a Ford Escort which also happens to be sponsored by Vodka Kick. Jimmy McRae, father of Colin and Alister, in another Escort is not far behind him. As a further interesting aside, in 2004 the RAC Rally was won by Stig Blomqvist and Ana Goni in a Ford Escort Mk2 and they, of course, will be starting the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally at number three.

The weather report from Kenya is that there is rain in both Nairobi and Mombasa but at least the forecast for the coast shows sunshine for the formalities and start of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally.


» Pressrelease från Safarirallyt, www.eastafricansafarirally.com.

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