BY FRANK KAHEESI& HENRY MBAZIIRA-ELMENTEITA, KENYA.
The unforgiving Safari Rally terrain claimed several casualties on Friday, with some crews fortunate enough to return under Super Rally rules.
Among the unfortunate ones was the KCB-sponsored crew of defending African Rally Champion Karan Patel and Tauseef Khan, whose engine succumbed to the harsh conditions.
Patel, who had begun to gain momentum in the KNRC category after posting impressive stage times at Kasarani and Mzabibu stages on Thursday, saw his Safari hopes dashed on the repeat of the Camp Moran stage.
“Unfortunately, we have had to retire from the 2025 WRC Safari Rally.
During the second pass of Camp Moran, we drove into a deep rut full of fesh fesh, where we found ourselves stuck.
At that moment, the engine took in too much dust, which killed it,” Patel explained on the team page.
He added, “We made it to service, tried to rebuild the car, but unfortunately, we exhausted our allocated service time, and that marked the end of our Safari.”
The same stage proved treacherous for several other drivers, including Jeremiah Wahome, Hamza Anwar, and Samman Singh Vohra.
Ugandan crews Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba, as well as Timothy Gawaya and Francis Wamala, restart again under Super Rally rules.
Other teams, such as Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, 2025 WRC leader Elfyn Evans, and Oliver Solberg, navigated the challenging stage with varying degrees of success.
As Toyota embarks on the final day with a 1-2 position lead, courtesy of Hyundai’s Ott Tanak’s gearbox oil linkage issue, the possibility of a repeat of the previous Safari Rally’s top-three sweep looms large.
Saturday’s stages include Sleeping Warrior, Elmenteita, and Soysambu, which will be repeated before the day’s close.
