Safari Rallyt; The last release.

The prize giving for the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally 2007 took place on Tuesday morning on the lawn of the Whitesands Hotel outside Mombasa. It was an emotional occasion with the winners of the rally, Bjorn Waldegård and his son, Mathias, dedicating their winner´s trophy to Ana Goni, co-driver to Stig Blomqvist and the person who funded the entire Historic Motorsport effort with two Ford Escorts in this Safari Classic. For Waldegård, this was his fifth Safari victory - the first came in another Escort in 1977, just thirty years previously : "It´s just fantastic to stand here today as the winner. More so to have my son here as part of that victory. And wonderful to have had such a fantastic car from Historic Motorsport and for Ana to have such belief in me to offer me this great opportunity." He then called up Ana and presented her with his trophy. Both were visibly moved by the occasion.

There was emotion too, but of a different sort when all the competitors and officials observed a minute´s silence of respect for the passing of Tony Fall, veteran rally driver and long-time supporter of the Safari, who died during the rally. He passed away in his sleep during the night halt in Arusha. His greatest Safari moment was as Sport Director at Opel when Ari Vatanen won with an Opel Ascona 400 in 1983.

Surinder Thatthi, Director of the Event and Clerk of the Course got the ceremonies under way with a vote of thanks to all those who had worked to ensure its success and to the competitors for making it possible in the first place. Hugh Frazer, Commercial Director of Kenya Airways, then addressed the gathering. He was very positive about their sponsorship of the rally and described it as a brilliant event that had resulted in tremendous world-wide coverage. He went on to reveal that Kenya Airways would be sponsoring the Safari Classic in 2009 when he hoped to welcome all the competitors back again to East Africa.

He was followed onto the podium by Evanson Mwaniki, Chairman of Kenya Airways. He recalled that his career started with Shell and that one of his first tasks had been to organise supplies of petrol for the 1965 East African Safari Rally. And at the lunch table, his companion was none other than the Safari Classic´s patron and winner of the Safari in that year, Joginder Singh.

Among the seemingly endless trophies that were presented, Gerard Marcy and Alain Lopes (Porsche 911) picked up the Hans Schuller Trophy for setting fastest time on the Athi River competitive section. The team award was won by the three Datsun 180Bs of Roddy Sachs/Peter Young, Wayne Kieswetter/Rob Hellier and Geoff Bell/Steve Harris who finished eight hours ahead of the next best team to finish. The Henry Liddon Spirit of the Rally Trophy went to the husband and wife team of Ekya and Prina Shah who rolled their Colt Lancer, breaking one of Prina´s fingers, but still carried on and drove all the sections to the finish.

The Shekhar Mehta Trophy went to the overall winners, while second place men, Frederic Dor and Didier Breton (Porsche 911) received the Eric Cecil Trophy, and Geoff Fielding and Preston Ayres (Porsche 911) were given the Joginder Singh Trophy for third place. Marcy was fourth and in fact set the majority of the fastest times on the event with ten to his credit with Waldegård next with seven fastest times. Ian Duncan, the local driver judged most likely at the start to win the event with his Ford Mustang, set three fastest times before retiring at half distance, while Stig Blomqvist in a sister Escort to that of Waldegård set one fastest time on his way to sixth place. Full results are on our web site.

Thus, until 2009, as Bugs Bunny would say "That´s all folks !" and thanks for listening to all we had to say about the toughest, hardest classic rally in the world. Join us next time.


» Pressrelease från Safarirallyt, www.eastafricansafarirally.com.

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