https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/longe...-safari-rally/
a 363 km route is planned with two new stages (two of the most technical stages dropped). Most of the extra kilometres come from the 96 km Sunday.
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https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/longe...-safari-rally/
a 363 km route is planned with two new stages (two of the most technical stages dropped). Most of the extra kilometres come from the 96 km Sunday.
I wish they would have made 3*100km stages, or at least 5*60 to recapture some of the safari spirit. The wRC needs diversity, not only of the background picture ! some short sprints, some endurance events, some classics ... This cloverleaf, all-the-same format is killing the sport. You could be anywhere it is just the same.
IIRC Mouton or Todt even asked for a longer itinerary from them a couple of years ago? However, this is still within the normal WRC format. Any other WRC event could do the same, and has been done during 2015-2018 (earlier years had more freedom with the itineraries).
I think you'll find the event organisers are not that keen to push the limit of stage mileage.
Where do you think these limits come from?
Every mile costs money to run. Lots of money.
To be fair, you're not not wrong on the former point, but up until 2017, it wasn't unusual to have at least five rallies over 350km per season. '17 & '18 we had three, then things started going really downhill from '19 onwards, largely due to Covid lately, admittedly. 363km in 2016 was not particularly special though.
I wanted to check this so I made this chart
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKqDRa2W...ng&name=medium
In 2016 363 km Safari would have been the sixth-longest event.
Last event to be over 400 km: Argentina 2014
Last event to be over 500 km: Argentina 2012 (the previous is Safari 2002, previous "normal" event Argentina 1996)
One more thing about this 363 km Safari: I don't want to hear anyone complaining on Sunday when they have those 96 km to go, differences are in minutes, half the cars in super rally and the two stages before power stage are just tyre saving cruising.
363km, eh? Who said endurance events were dead? 🙄
Ogier will be back behind the wheel again for Toyota
Loeb confirmed
https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2022/wrc...fari-comeback/
Wow 34. Massive
Little surprised nobody sorted out a WRC2 Teams entry given the new bonus rule. Although the most likely candidates just aren't at the races anyway.
No big interest for Toksport considering the cost of sending cars in Safari and they are quite sure of winning the title with their two teams even if the first team has not started well (+ they could still found, if really needed, an agreement with Kovalainen and the other Skoda Japanese guy for Rally Japan who will probably be the only Rally2 guys in Japan). It’s better to focus on the Open and Junior championships where there is still competition (and also maybe the integration of the new Skoda car).
Sainteloc could have tried to convince one local guy as Johnson is going there. But with Camilli leaving the team, they have no more hope to win it and will probably not make other event as a team (only using Johnson). And other teams seem to have abandoned the team championship (no 2nd driver with Cais in Portugal and Sardinia for Yacco, same for M-Sport with Huttunen in Sardinia).
The only remaining competitor for Toksport is Hyundai ... with Zaldivar as the second driver (eventually, if they still have an hope to win, they could make a tactical move in Rally New Zealand as Paddon is supposed to do it with Hyundai Rally2, even by taking a guy with another brand car as nothing forbids it)
To be noticed in RC2, the move from Kajto is interesting. I thought he would be too short for championship contention but with a bit of luck in his two first rallies and if he doesn’t mess up in Safari, he will be in contention with Mikkelsen, Suninen and Rossel. But Safari is always a risk as it is tougher than standard rallies.
For the rest of the list, the number of locals is really reduced compared with last year, even Rai and Tundo are missing. The only positive is that the international entries are not absolutely awful for an extra-European round (WRC + Kajto, Gill, Prokop, Dominguez, Johnston).
After Hyundais success in Italy, we could be heading for the most open round of the series this year with more than eight drivers in with a chance of outright Safari victory.
All four Toyota drivers can realistically win. Katsuta must fancy his chances after a strong performance in 2021. The two lead Hyundais start every event with huge expectations. Oliver Solberg had a fraught event last year and may be the only one looking light.
Ford have arguably their biggest chance of the year. With the exception of Breen, the other three all have Safari history and could press for a major result.
Can't wait :)
Well I haven’t been on here for many many many years :eek:
I don’t like people moaning about length of events. Any rally in the world isn’t quite as long as it was in the past. Sanremo doesn’t go to Tuscany, GB doesn’t go around GB, Monte Carlo doesn’t have starting points across Europe, the Circuit of Ireland isn’t much of a circuit of Ireland, Rally New Zealand doesn’t go around the whole of the North Island. And you know what? There are many historic events that do exactly this, so get over it :p
I will enjoy every single km of the Safari this time… :rotate:
Meanwhile in Le Mans, Ogier is doing not that good, he has done so far 98 laps with a best lap of 3:35.582 and his team mate Charles Milesi (last year lucky winner in LMP2 class) has done a best of 3:33.761 => Ogier was complaining already that there is no fair comparison with his team mate since he is not that tall as him so have much less weight to carry. But that does not explain a difference of 1.8 seconds in lap time. Tyre management and the skills passing the slower GT cars have to be taken in amount too. The current top runners in LMP2 class with the same Oreca Gibson have done their best laps in the 3:31 bracket. I do not consider Ogier as a worthy WEC driver for the official Toyota squad. Either he goes back full time to WRC or follow the footsteps of Loeb
I haven't been blown away by his performance, but he's massively disadvantaged due to lack of seat time; however there is the possibility that he's just not suited to it. It's an obvious statement, but it's a very different discipline. At the moment you wouldn't be putting him in a LMH Toyota.
Toyota appear to have cleverly improvised a Safari PET in Sardinia!!!!!
https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2022/wrc...ng-for-toyota/
Thanks :up:
I will be co-driving in car no 41 so will see what I can report..... probably very rough :p: Luckily I've done a few of the stages on previous Safari Rallies, and know the area quite well, so calming the nerves a bit...
Hopefully be an updated entry list soon. Raaji Bharij (#23) has had to withdraw as his Skoda seems to have missed the shipping connection so won't arrive in time :(
The organisers announced a National event a few days ago but I haven't heard any details about it.
My friend on the ground says the rains arrived late this year and it's still raining every day, so will be interesting to see what happens over the next week or so...
https://itgetsfasternow.com/2022/06/...ri-rally-2022/
Route preview. The two new stages are driven on proper gravel roads so the nature of the rally changes a bit, especially with the most sinuous forest track stage Chui Lodge being removed.
Spectator Guide
https://www.safarirally.co.ke/wp-con...ide-1-copy.pdf
Agree, I liked the look of the stage and always nice to have a bit of variety, not just from event to event but within events too.
I'll be staying at Chui Lodge so would've been perfect for day 1 recce to start a few hundred metres away :crazy: But get that for recce day 2 at Oserian I guess :p:
Organisers confirmed me today so just waiting for an amended entry list, shame I miss having my name in the program etc :( I fly out on Friday just before it all kicks off, think I am just about prepped for the rally but I better start packing :crazy:
I think Oserian is quite similar to Chui Lodge, just not as slow and twisty. But I like the variety that the two new stages bring for being run on roads as opposed to off-road tracks. In a way it's more like the old Safaris. You have a road but you still can't go flat out because there's potholes and dips.
Antti - great job as always. Only one remainder - shakedown in Safari is on Wednesday.
Great detail about the stages again Antii. A tiny suggestion I'd have for future (which you're obviously entitled to ignore), is to maybe include the exact stage length - either next to the stage names or after the full description of the stage.
I know you touch on the lengths of the stages and go into great detail about how a stage changes character at a certain point, or turns off onto a new piece of road at x km etc etc, but sometimes after reading a stage description I'm still left wanting to know the exact length :)
Yeah, would be a nice addition but I guess I always assume the reader has the full itinerary at hand through my rally-maps link or something else. Copying the lenghts would take some extra work from my limited time. :) Also, sometimes the stage lengths change slightly at the last minute so I don't want to supply false information. But thanks!