Wed 13 Mar 2024

Big names turn out for Safari WRC2 battle

The battle for WRC2 honours at this month’s Safari Rally Kenya (28 - 31 March) will be the most intense since the Naivasha-based event’s return to the FIA World Rally Championship.

Rally Sweden winner Oliver Solberg will start the African classic as favourite. The 22-year-old Swede has finished in the top 10 overall in Kenya for the last two seasons (driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in 2022), but this will be his first time chasing points for the WRC2 crown.

Solberg runs his usual Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for what will be his fourth Safari start (he retired a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC from the 2021 event).

Fellow Fabia driver Gus Greensmith starts his 2024 campaign at the longest rally of the season so far (the Safari delivers 355 competitive kilometres across 19 stages). While the Englishman skipped last year’s event, he finished an impressive fourth – his best ever WRC finish – on the 2021 fixture aboard a Ford Fiesta WRC.

Nicolas Ciamin will be aiming to better the fourth place he scored on the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo. The Hyundai i20 N Rally2 driver is making his Safari debut this time around.

Winner of the WRC2 category for the last two years, Kajto Kajetanowicz is another to make his maiden 2024 appearance on the March 28-31 rally. The Polish star understands better than anybody else in the field what it takes to win arguably the season’s toughest event.

Charles Munster (Hyundai i20 N Rally2), Diego Domínguez Jr (Citroën C3 Rally2) and Daniel Chwist (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) are among the other leading entries, along with local hero Carl Tundo in a Ford Fiesta R5. The entry list for the third round of the championship includes 14 RC2 cars.