The present-day Safari Rally Kenya may not cover the marathon mileage of years gone by, but it certainly remains a gruelling event.
Given the challenges crews faced last weekend on rough, bumpy roads, through the infamous fesh-fesh sand and plenty of proper Safari mud, it’s impressive that nine of the 10 Rally1 cars that started the event reached the finish.
Thierry Neuville’s Hyundai i20 N was subsequently excluded for breaching recce regulations, and Esapekka Lappi’s similar car had to take advantage of super-rally restart rules following his Saturday propshaft failure. But it was only the Ford Puma Rally1 of privateer Jourdan Serderidis that didn’t get to the end of Africa’s WRC round after an engine failure on leg two.
It’s not as if the cars were bullet-proof. From Takamoto Katsuta’s shakedown roll, through the decidedly dog-eared cars drivers dragged back to service throughout the rally, plenty of damage was inflicted on the Rally1 machinery.
Crucial to Sébastien Ogier defeating reigning champion team-mate Kalle Rovanperä by just 6.7 seconds was the repair of his Toyota GR Yaris’s rear end ahead of the final loop of stages.
Having knocked off the tailgate on Sunday morning, his car would have been shorn of its rear downforce and stability. Ogier himself mucked in as the replacement was fitted in the 15-minute service.
Similarly, Toyota’s second consecutive Safari 1-2-3-4 would not have happened without Katsuta’s pre-rally rebuild – not to mention the multitude of repairs required to his Yaris during the event following brushes with the scenery, local wildlife and flailing rubber from punctures.
Elfyn Evans damaged his wing throughout the event too. In fact, after the second full day, the Toyotas had inflicted so much damage that the team was almost running out of parts!
“I think at the moment we have lost three rear spoilers,” team principal Jari-Matti Latvala told DirtFish on Saturday.
“So we’ve been almost running out of rear spoilers. I think we now have to make from two damaged ones one complete for the final day of the rally.”
Mechanics always face a tough (and often underappreciated) job on rallies, but Toyota’s team really were put to work in Kenya.
The just reward was top-four domination, which was as much down to the mechanics as the drvers. They were the unsung heroes that kept the cars on the road and were rightly hailed by the drivers and team bosses.
“Huge thanks to the team,” said Katsuta. “They fixed the car very well and many, many things happened this weekend.
“I am sorry for the team I am making so many mistakes but still they did an amazing job to fix the car and every single, every single people in the team, they did a super job. So huge thanks to the team.”
Latvala was equally quick to praise the mechanics’ efforts.
Latvala said: “I also have to say thanks to the team and to Taka’s mechanics in particular as they had to repair the car a few times during the week. Without them and their dedicated work, it wouldn’t have been possible to keep Taka going and to achieve the amazing 1-2-3-4 finish for the team.”
Rallying is a team effort, and nowhere was that better exemplified on the Safari.
“I have to say thank you to everybody,” Latvala added.
