Friday’s gruelling 98-mile leg through rock-strewn roads, menacing piles of fech-fech and arduous terrain was punishing enough.
But try taking all that on when you’re suffering from food poisoning, and you’re welcomed into the world of Takamoto Katsuta today at Safari Rally Kenya.
The Toyota driver started this year’s event with an enviable Safari record of three podiums and a fourth place finish, but it’s been far from straightforward so far in 2025 with three punctures (two on one stage) besetting him on Friday.
But the biggest challenge of all has been combatting a severe lack of sleep.
“Last night I got sick basically with food poisoning, had a big fever and I didn’t sleep at all,” Katsuta told DirtFish.
“It’s been a quite challenging day! But yeah, Aaron [Johnston, co-driver] did a great job supporting me and we were able to go through the stages.”
Opening up on the challenge of the day while feeling unwell, Katsuta added: “Especially the first one – even in 100% condition myself, probably it’s going to be quite tough, I thought like that on the recce.
“So yeah, unfortunately, this situation happened to me today. But yeah, we are here. ”
Indeed he is, and is not sitting too badly – fifth overall, and 3m26.4s off his rally-leading team-mate Elfyn Evans.
On a rally as rough as the Safari, anything can still happen.
“Unfortunately, we got two punctures this morning and another puncture this afternoon, but three minutes from the top, anything can happen still here [at this rally] because tomorrow it’s going to be raining or something, I think,” Katsuta said.
“So yeah, still everything is possible.”
But first and foremost?
“I’m looking forward to sleeping [tonight]!”
