Today marks the big day of the parade in Watamu of the vintage rally cars that participated in the tenth edition of the East African Classic Safari Rally. The town will see the colorful elaborate cars parade for the start and will see them stop at Ocean Sports which was chosen as the headquarters and which will be closed to the public today.
The competition, which started from Naivasha last February 10, arrived yesterday afternoon in the coastal town after crossing the Tsavo East National Park, in a spectacular test in the middle of the wilderness and animals more intrigued than disturbed at the edge of the tracks chosen for the eighth and penultimate stage. Today the group formed by 40 crews with their historic cars of forty years ago or a little less, will face the last special stages that will determine the winner of this edition, back to roar among the dirt roads of Kenya after the forced stop for the pandemic.
On the eve of the conclusion of a unique rally in the world, with great and positive surprise at the head of the competition there are two Kenyan drivers, Baldev Chager and the expert Ian Duncan, assisted respectively by the British Drew Sturrock and the other Kenyan Anthony Nielsen. For now, the Swedish favorites Patrik Sandell and Henrik Bolinder follow in third place and hope for a final push. There are two Italian entries, one is that of the Rocca Rally team of Malindino Stefano Rocca, owner of the racing team that on his Datsun 240Z, with the Kenyan driver Piers Daykin and the South African navigator Pier Arries fighting in fifth place. The other one is completely Italian, with the couple formed by Federico Polese and Nicolas Arena, on Porsche 911, who, however, have lost ground and are in sixteenth position. Another Italian is Alex Gelsomino, historic navigator of the American rallyist youtuber Ken Block, the most famous of the drivers in the race because of his great popularity on the web. Block is tenth for now, but his videos and photos promote Kenya on social media as number one.