Safari Rally
The Safari Rally is a rally held in Kenya. It was first held from 27 May to 1 June 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1960 it was renamed the East African Safari Rally and kept that name until 1974, when it became the Safari Rally. Widely regarded as one of the most popular African rallies, it was set to make a return to the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2020 after an 18-year hiatus, but was cancelled due to  the COVID-19 pandemic, instead making its return in 2021. The earlier iteration of the Safari Rally was notorious for being by far the most difficult rally in the WRC championship to take on, so difficult that it was once said that winning this particular rally felt like winning three rallies at once. The arduous conditions, such as the constantly changing weather and the very rough roads often rife with sharp rocks, made life very difficult for team personnel. Intense repairs had to be regularly made to the cars, which added to the elapsed time of the competitors. Frequently, all this  work had to be done in intense heat and humidity. The event adopted the special stage format in 1996. From that edition until 2002, it featured over 1000 km of timed stages, with stages well over long, unlike most rallies which had under of total timed distance. This meant that the winner's total time penalty was above 12 hours in 1996 and decreased to two seconds shy of 8 hours in 2002. The event was excluded from the WRC calendar due to a lack of finance and organisation in 2003. Since 2003, the event has been part of the  African Rally Championship, organised by the FIA. On the 27 September 2019, the Safari Rally was reintroduced into the WRC championship calendar starting with the 2020 rally between 16 and 19 July, but was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Safari Rally eventually made a comeback to the WRC in 2021 after an eighteen-year hiatus from the 24th - 27th June, with a successful event held in Kenya on the floor of the Rift Valley in Naivasha, Nakuru County. Sebastian Ogier and Julien Ingrassia emerged as winners in their Toyota Yaris WRC. Local driver Shekhar Mehta is the  most successful competitor in the event, with five outright victories, first in 1973, then consecutively from 1979 to 1982. Past winners. Notes: IMC = International Championship for Manufacturers, WRC = World Rally Championship, 2LWC = 2-Litre World Cup, ARC = African Rally Championship, IRC = Intercontinental Rally Challenge, KRC = Kenya National Rally Championship East African Safari Rally (classic). The East African Safari Rally is a Classic rally event first held in 2003 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first running of the event. The event has since been held biennially.