Speculation about Safari Rally’s reinstatement to the 2020 WRC calendar is rife in Europe following reports from a Finnish newspaper that the Kenyan round of the FIA African Rally Championship will be rejoining the world stage.
But FIA representative in Kenya Surinder Thatthi clarified that the vote by the World Motor Sports Council is ongoing and Kenya will know it’s fate next week.
A Finnish newspaper reported yesterday that the WRC calendar for 2020 has major changes.
The paper speculated that Kenya, Japan and New Zealand are back to the global stage adding that Corsica, Turkey and Australia have been dropped.
“It’s still too early to speculate as the vote is still ongoing,” said Thatthi.
The FIA, motorsport’s governing body, dropped the Safari Rally from the 2003 World Rally Championship Calendar in October 2002. This followed a World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris then.
Safari was excluded from the calendar because the necessary guarantees for the event had not been given, according to FIA.
Since then, the Safari organisers have been working to ensure Kenya returns to the global calendar.
The event has since been run as a round of the ARC. The Kenyan government has also committed its efforts in making sure that the Safari Rally returns to the world stage.
