Safari Rally 1999

Dust, rocks and heat; those were the conditions in the Safari Rally this year. Prior to the event Ford's Thomas Raadstrom broke his leg on stairs at his hotel in Nairobi. He is out for several weeks and is replaced by Ford's 'junior driver' Petter Solberg. Juha Kankkunen of Subaru celebrated his 130th WRC start, exceeding the previous record set by Markku Alen, by winning the short super special driven in Nairobi on Thursday.

Richard Burns / Robert Reid (Photo by Subaru WRT)

On Friday the real Safari started on the rugged Kenyan roads, which still today are not closed from the normal traffic. The rally was run earlier in the year than usually, so there was no sign of the rains. The road conditions were very dry and hard, which took its toll already on the first day. Juha Kankkunen's effort ended with electrical problems, as did Bruno Thiry's, who is Kankkunen's team-mate at Subaru. Subaru's third driver, Richard Burns had no such problems and he was leading after the first day.

Burns took the lead from Toyota's Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard had to slow down to avoid a group of donkeys. The difference between the two leaders at the end of the day was 26 secs which means nothing in the Safari. Third was Colin McRae, who sustained such front end damage hitting a rock, that he was really surprised he could continue the rally, losing only two minutes.

Punctures were common all through the event and most drivers had to become mechanics changing tyres on the competitive sections. Using the puncture proof ATS tyres was also a risk as the mousse inside the tyres does not function properly in extremely hot conditions.

As Tommi Makinen stopped in a village to change two punctured tyres, a large group of locals gathered around the car deciding to show some courtesy and started helping him and co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki. Outside assistance is forbidden in the rule book and there was a TV crew filming the whole operation, so Toyota team later made a protest which got Makinen disqualified from the rally. Mitsubishi aren't going to appeal over the decision, even though anyone could see from the video that the persons 'helping' Makinen were in fact costing time for the crew, who tried to keep them away from the car. In addition to this episode Makinen lost time with cooling problems.

Another retirement on the first day was Makinen's team-mate Freddy Loix who hit a pothole at 160kph and rolled. Freddy was taken to the hospital but he was ok apart from a little whiplash. Didier Auriol was 4th after the first day and Tommi Makinen still 5th.

Carlos Sainz in a high speed railroad crossing... (Photo by TTE)

The second day was even longer than the first one, and almost everyone had at least a couple of punctures during the day. Richard Burns retired from the lead with a broken bolt in the suspension. Carlos Sainz had three punctures on the first section of the day, losing a lot of time as they only can carry two spare tyres. This meant that Colin McRae, who didn't have any major problems, found himself in the lead by almost 15 minutes. Tommi Makinen, still competing as the protest was made on the final day, was the fastest driver of the day, but making up time he lost on the first day was difficult. Didier Auriol was third, followed by Sainz and Piero Liatti of Seat who also had had his share of problems.

The Ford Focus of Colin McRae held up superbly also the final day of the rally and brought the Scotsman a great win in the Safari. Who would have expected that the most gruesome event of the year could be won by a car attending only in its third event. Colin drove very sensibly, avoiding problems; he didn't win a single competitive section in the rally! In the Safari he who has least problems, wins.

Tommi Makinen finished 2nd but was excluded after the event so Didier Auriol took the six points for the 2nd position. Auriol and Makinen in fact had something of a battle during the last day, but Auriol couldn't catch Tommi as he had again a couple of punctures. Sainz finished third and 4th was Kenyan Ian Duncan who is always very fast in the Safari. Petter Solberg was 5th after passing Seat's Harri Rovanpera on the last day as Rovanpera had turbo problems. Piero Liatti retired on the last day with engine failure.

Colin McRae / Nicky Grist (Photo by Networks Studios & Communications)