Tundo welcomes Safari Rally delay due to Covid-19 crisis

Carl 'Flash' Tundo has welcomed the postponement of this year's Safari Rally which has been rescheduled to 2021 due to the coronavirus crisis. 

The Safari Rally, which has made a return to the World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar for the first time since 2002, was originally supposed to be held between July 16 and 19 in Nairobi and Nakuru counties. 

"I feel that was the best decision because not many teams would have made it to Nairobi due to the current situation," Tundo told Standard Sports yesterday. 

Tundo, who is a five-time winner of the Safari Rally, said it is not realistic to think that normalcy will resume by July across the world. 

"It would have been difficult for people to travel especially from Europe. We have no otherwise but to wait until next year. That's life," said Tundo, who competed at the 1995 and 2002 WRC Safari Rally. 

Despite the postponement of this year's event, Phineas Kimathi, who is the CEO of the WRC Safari Rally Project, said they will continue with their preparations. 

"The organisation teams continue to work hard to make sure that we deliver a world-class event. We are at an advanced stage to complete the Service Park located in Nakuru County," Kimathi said in a statement. 

Kimathi said the Event Safety Plan has been complete while the Itinerary and Supplementary Regulations will be delivered within the required timelines. 

"We encourage the drivers and all stakeholders to keep in touch with the secretariat as we ready ourselves for the new dates," said Kimathi. 

Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said pushing this year's Safari Rally to 2021 was not an easy decision to take. 

"We will continue to prepare for the event as groundworks are already in top-gear," Amina said, adding that they are cognisant of the present global challenges. 

"We assure that the Safari Rally will mark a significant part of our country's history for the next three years as was intended," she said. 

"We look forward to welcome rally professionals and teams to Kenya when the event is re-convened next year," the Cabinet Secretary said. 

The Safari Rally is one of 13 events lined up in the 2020 WRC roster. 

The Kenyan rally becomes the fourth to be affected by the spreading virus following those of Italy, Argentina as well as Portugal. 

The Safari Rally was readmitted to the WRC circuit following a successful candidate event won by Baldev Chager last year.