The 2019 East African Safari Classic Rally has received 23 entries from home and foreign-based competitors.
It boosts the morale of the organizers, who are also happy to have secured a sponsorship deal with Safaricom, one of the leading mobile phone operators.
Raj Chaggar, the Clerk of the Course for the ninth edition of the marathon raid rally, said he was happy with all the preparations for the world-famous event that will run in November.
"I am happy with the deal with Safaricom which will go a long way to help the team with most of the expenses. We have done almost 12000kms of checking the route for the event which will kick off from the Sarova Hotels in Mombasa,” said Chaggar.
The East African Classic Safari Rally was made a biennial event in 2003. It is open to two-wheel drive and naturally aspirated rally cars built before 1985.
The Safaricom deal will support operations, logistics and communication during the rally scheduled for November 27th to December 6th 2019. The rally is set to cover more than 4,500 kilometres in Kenya and Tanzania over nine days.
The race aims to showcase the beauty of the East African landscape with vehicles racing through world-famous game parks, with overnight stops at the region’s finest lodges and hotels.
The event will run for four days in Kenya before crossing over to Tanzania where stages will run across four days with a finish aimed at Sarova White sands.
Competitors are set to cover approximately 500 kilometres every day in competitive stages of between 50 km and 160 km.
Some of the teams that have already confirmed participation include Tuthill Porsche, Freestone Rally Services, Minti Motorsport Oman, Team Tido Race 4 Health, ALS Motorsport and Safari World Africa.
Entries received so far include:
1.Philippe Gache/TBA (Mazda RX7) French, 2. Geoff Bell/Tim Challen (Datsun 260Z) South Africa, 3. Raaji Bharij/Rajay Sehmi (Porsche 91) Kenyan, 4. Iain Freestone/TBA (Ford Escort MK) British, 5. TBA/TBA (Ford Escort MK1)TBA, 6. Gilberto Sandretto/Fabrizia Pons (Porsche 911) Italian, 7. Renee Brinkerhoff/TBA (Porsche 356) American, 8. Philip Kadoorie/TBA (Porsche 911) TBA, 9. Joe Hayes/Kate Hayes (Porsche 911) American, 10. Nish Lakhani/Teeku Patel (Datsun SSS 1600) Kenyan, 11. Joey Ghose/Stephane Prevot (Nissan 240RS) Oman, 12. Scott Armstrong/Harpal Singh Sudle (Datsun 160J) British, 13. Minesh Rathod/TBA (Colt Lancer) Kenyan, 14. Navraj Sagoo/Harneel Sagoo (Datsun 240Z) Kenyan, 15. Jan Hagman/TBA (Porsche 911) Swedish, 16. Jayant Shah/TBA (Porsche 911) Tanzanian, 17. Bernhard Kessel/Ronny Kessel (Porsche 911) German, 18. Kris Rosenberger/Nicola Bleicher (Porsche 911) Austrian, 19. Stig Blomqvist/TBA (Porsche 911) Swedish, 20. TBA/TBA (Porsche 911) Swedish, 21. TBA/TBA (Porsche 911) Swedish, 22. TBA/TBA (Porsche 911) Swedish, 23. Aslam Khan/Farhaaz Khan (Porsche 911)
