FIA observers endorse Safari Rally, Kenya to wait for reinstatement

By John Kwoba

NAIROBI, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Kenya will have to wait for the final confirmation from Federation Internationale de Automobile (FIA) over the possibility of reinstating the safari rally to the premier World Rally Championships (WRC).

Oliver Ciesla, the Managing Director and Promoter of the WRC, said Tuesday that after their report, the will return to Kenya together with officials of FIA with a commercial agreement, before Safari rally is placed under candidate event in 2019.

Ciesla, however, gave a thumb up on the Kenya's organization skills after acting as an observer during the Safari rally, which was held in Naivasha and Nakuru over the weekend.

"We will share what we have observed here with other stakeholders including the FIA and car manufacturers. We will then discuss with them the commercial viability so as to enable us to organize the rally as a candidate event," Ciesla said in Nairobi.

The chairman of the Safari Rally Organizing Committee Phineas Kimathi however, remained optimistic, Kenya will clear the remaining hurdles and be granted a slot in the 13-tier WRC, which currently has not leg in Africa.

"We have government support and have incorporated the safety detains required by FIA president Jean Todt. We have now to wait and see what next ahead of 2019," he said.

Kenya's Safari Rally, which was part of the WRC, was dropped in 2002 but it still stands out as the one of the toughest rallies in the world. Ciesla is however optimistic that Kenya can even do better.

"We have quite an organized process when we try to identify new venues of the championship; this being the first step - getting the impression on site seeing if it makes sense to pursue."

But Kenya will face stiff challenge from Sweden and Canada, who are also eyeing to have their events added to the WRC.

Early this year, Ciesla said they were mooting at adding a second snow rally to the World Rally Championship. The WRC last ran two snow events in 2007, when Rally Sweden was on consecutive weekends with Rally Norway.

Canada has expressed an interest in hosting a winter rally, but admitted it's at least five years away.

"To drive on the snow and ice is a unique selling point in world-level sport for the WRC, it's a story the car and tyre manufacturers can tell nowhere else in the world," said Ciesla. Enditem