Safari out/Monte in for 2010?

[RS]

I don't think any of the IRC big boys will go to Safari anyway, so next "real" IRC round will be Azores.

[bluuford]

I found an interview with Alen in IRC official site where he mentions: Alen’s next event is the Azores Rally on May 7-9. “I will have a good road position for that event, similar to Juho Hanninen in the factory Skoda who I am sure will be very strong on gravel,” Alen said.

So. Definitely no Fiat there.

And The link form IRC site is gone (it was there for not long ago).

Things does not look good

And there is little star behind Safari ralli in IRC-site with end note: "To be confirmed".

[Simmi]

It will run but with no S2000 cars there I reckon. Not sure what they will do about points. I doubt they will have a local African driver level on points with Ogier and Meeke after three rounds.

[DonJippo]

They are having a launch of the event on coming Saturday so seems that the event will be organized anyway http://www.motorsportkenya.com/safari09/poster.html

[Simmi]

They are having a launch of the event on coming Saturday so seems that the event will be organized anyway http://www.motorsportkenya.com/safari09/poster.html

I think if the IRC keep a close relationship with the rally, when it is in a stronger position it can bring multiple manufacturer teams over and we will get a proper spectacle of an event.

At the moment there just isn't any point running it as a championship round. It's good to see the IRC having the Safari on their agenda but the teams just aren't interested at this stage. You cant really blame them either.

If you could have all the big boys there and beat them then it makes sense from a marketing point of view to say 'we won the toughest rally of them all'. But until then it will always fail...

[DonJippo]

If you could have all the big boys there and beat them then it makes sense from a marketing point of view to say 'we won the toughest rally of them all'.

This Safari rally in IRC is not a tough one, it's like any other special stage rally with 300 km special stages with total length of 700 km. If you want the real Safari then this one is for you http://www.eastafricansafarirally.com/ where the total length of the route is 4500kms

[alleskids]

There is no mentioning of IRC on the Safari Rally. I think the Safari is run as a suppport rally, like the Azores rally was last year.

[DonJippo]

There is no mentioning of IRC on the Safari Rally. I think the Safari is run as a suppport rally, like the Azores rally was last year.

If you take a look to the rally guide for the event, which can be found on this page http://www.africanrallychampionship.com/ it does list Intercontinental Rally Challenge 2009 as one of the titles this event counts.

[Karbonyl]

As I said before, there is still no official confirmation, that Safari is dropped out of IRC for 2009. It also makes me thinking that if Subaru would enter IRC right now, they could have quite good chance to match nice points collection :-)

[RS]

Safari definitely in IRC:

http://www.rallye-info.com/article.asp?sid=0&stid=7783