WRC Safari Rally to highlight motorsport action this year

Toyota Gazoo's Kalle Rovanpera in action in Naivasha on the second day of the 2022 Safari Rally. [WRC.COM]

Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team speedsters led by champion Kalle Rovanpera will be the star attractions at this year's WRC Safari Rally which marks the highlight of the 2023 Kenya Motor Sports Calendar.b

The iconic Kenyan leg of the World Rally Championship (WRC) will return to Naivasha for the third year running on the weekend of June 22-25.

Toyota who recently ran a pre-season winter test of their Yaris Rally 1 in Finland in the presence of Kenya's RedBull athlete Karan Patel remains unchanged for the 2023 Season.

The new development in the team this season is the promotion of Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta to their otherwise solid main line-up which will witness the return of Elfyn Evans to a full campaign.

Katsuta, who secured his maiden WRC podium in Kenya in 2021, was taken under the wing of Toyota's WRC Challenge Program for young drivers in 2015 and made his top-flight debut in Germany four years ago.

2021 Safari winner Sebastien Ogier will be part of Gazoo outfit and is likely to take up the reins for the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo (January 19-22), an event he has won eight times. He is also expected to grace the Safari in June.

Evans will join Rovanpera as part of Toyota's Safari lineup as both will compete for the full season for the Japanese manufacturer.

Toyota claimed the top four positions on Safari last year and will be hoping for a repeat performance on Naivasha's world famous stages.

2023 WRC will feature a new round which takes place across three countries when Austria, Czech Republic and Germany host the Central European Rally from October 26-29. The asphalt rally will be based out of the south-east German city of Passau.

On the national front, KRT club will organise its first Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) event which will be the season closer on the weekend of December 9-10.

KNRC 1 will be organised by the Rallye Sports Club (RSC) on the same weekend as Time Trial 1, a tarmac event to be run by Delta Motorsports on the weekend of February 4-5. WRC Safari Rally will also doubling up as KNRC4.

The 4X4 series will feature in the motorsport calendar for the second year running.