Out of the ten WRC2 cars that made it to the finish of the challenging Safari Rally Kenya, six bore the Škoda badge. The crew of Greensmith/Andersson claimed their first victory of this FIA World Rally Championship season, while the Paraguayan Italian duo Zaldivar and Der Ohannesian secured third place.
The Kenyan rally is traditionally one of the toughest events in the World Rally Championship. Over more than 383 kilometres of special stages, the WRC2 winning time of 4 hours and 34 minutes was nearly two hours longer than the winning time in the Swedish Rally. The ones who conquered these brutal conditions to take the win were Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson, driving a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for the RaceSeven team.
Competing in their first points-scoring event of the season, the duo opted for a relatively cautious approach from the outset – a strategy that paid off. As expected, the rally lived up to its reputation. The rhythm of the special stages varied from long, fast sections on hard-packed or grassy tracks to deep mud with aquaplaning stretches over 100 meters long. Drivers had to dodge boulders the size of a soccer ball, often sitting right in the middle of the road and causing punctures. Some crews even got stuck in knee-deep, extremely fine sand known as “fesh-fesh.”
Even Greensmith and Andersson didn’t have an easy road to victory. By Friday evening, they were in second place, trailing by a narrow margin.
“An unresolved issue disrupted my rhythm today, but we’re only ten seconds off the lead, and tomorrow is another ‘mammoth’ day,” Greensmith commented after the first leg.
Saturday’s stages were impacted by rain, and Greensmith and Andersson managed to take the lead, helped in part by their rivals’ misfortunes. However, a puncture on the following stage nearly erased their advantage. Later, they struggled with a lack of windshield washer fluid – a serious handicap in muddy conditions requiring frequent windshield cleaning. This cost them precious time, slowed them down again and they briefly lost the lead. However, a perfect drive in the final Saturday stage put their Fabia RS Rally2 back in front, albeit by a slim margin of just 5.8 seconds.
On Sunday, their closest rivals made a costly mistake, effectively deciding the battle. Greensmith and Andersson controlled the situation from there, securing not only the WRC2 class win but also an impressive sixth place overall in this demanding event. “Winning here two years in a row is an amazing feeling,” Greensmith said, reflecting on a performance that also earned him second place in the overall WRC2 category standings.
Joining them on the WRC2 podium in third place was the crew of Fabrizio Zaldivar and Marcelo Der Ohannesian. Their rally wasn’t without trouble either – on Friday, they had to change a wheel, and on Saturday, after setting quick times in the morning, they damaged their car’s chassis in the afternoon. Fortunately, the Mapo Motorsport mechanics repaired their Fabia RS Rally2 overnight, allowing them to defend their podium position on Sunday without major drama.
Just behind them in WRC2 category standings, the Polish duo of Daniel Chwist/Kamil Heller (Eurosol Racing Hungary) finished in their Fabia RS Rally2. Positions eight, nine, and ten in the category were also claimed by Škoda crews: local drivers Jeremiah Wahome/Victor Okundi (Eurosol Racing Hungary), Spain’s Miguel Díaz-Aboitiz/Miquel Ibáñez Sotos, and the Kenyan British pairing of Samman Singh Vohra/Drew Sturrock (Sheffield Racing Team). Out of the ten WRC2 crews that reached the finish, six were behind the wheel of Mladá Boleslav’s rally weapon.
