The Safari Rally is the last in the EARC Series and took place between April 3th to April 5th in Nairobi, Kenya with the kick off at KICC on the 3rd of April and rally action at Elementaita and Stony Athi
Since 2003, KCB Bank has been sponsoring the Kenya National Rally Championships which consists of 7 rallies through out the year and are staged in different towns throughout Kenya. In 2008, KCB launched the East Africa Rally Challenge (EARC) this rally consisted of the Kobil rally of Tanzania, The KCB Pearl of Africa in Uganda, and the KCB Safari Rally in Kenya.
The Safari Rally is considered by many to be the world’s toughest rally. It was first held from May 27 to June 1, 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari in Kenya, Ugandaand Tanzania, as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1960 it was renamed the East African Safari Rally and kept that name until 1974, when it became the Safari Rally.
The event was part of the World Rally Championship calendar for many years until being excluded due to lack of funding & organization in 2003. The Kenyan government is trying to get the rally’s WRC status restored. Since 2003 the event has been part of the African Rally Championship organized by the FIA. It is currently known as the KCB Safari Rally after its sponsor, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB).
The Safari was a markedly different rally from the other dates on the WRC schedule. About 5300 km of gravel roads comprised the course, though there were not distinct special stages as in other rallies, but instead the course was uncontrolled. The rally was considered very punishing, and thus many of the successful teams were specifically focused on it, leading to a different set of front-runners than led most other rallies.
