Success in the Mud | Safari Rally Kenya

The Kenya Rally is traditionally very demanding, and this year that was further emphasized by the rain and the resulting muddy roads. This makes the success of the Škoda crews all the more impressive. The victory in the WRC2 category went to Estonian driver Robert Virves, who finished fifth overall. Fabrizio Zaldivar took third place. Other crews also succeeded, demonstrating, among other things, the great durability of the Mladá Boleslav-built cars.

Victory in the WRC2 category at one of the rainiest rallies in recent memory went to the Estonian duo Robert Virves and Jakko Viilo. The pair showed both pace and consistency, successfully avoiding major issues throughout the demanding event.

And the conditions were indeed extreme. Rocky sections and deep fesh-fesh sand caused technical problems and punctures for many competitors. Elsewhere, heavy rain transformed the roads into mud baths stretching for hundreds of metres. The situation became so severe that the organisers deemed the “Camp Moran 2” and “Sleeping Warrior 2” special stages impassable for the WRC2 field.

Virves and his Fabia RS Rally2, however, excelled in these conditions. Although they fell slightly behind their rivals on Thursday and throughout Friday, Virves gradually found his rhythm and, unlike his competitors, managed to avoid any issues, allowing him to take the lead in the overall standings during Friday’s stage. And he didn’t let anyone else take the lead after Friday’s midday break; by Saturday evening, the Toksport WRT crew had increased their lead to nearly one minute.

“It’s one of the worst situations because you start looking for and listening to things you normally wouldn’t notice,” Robert Virves described the stress of leading the rally. However, he kept his cool and managed to avoid problems on Sunday as well, successfully maintaining his lead. “It’s an amazing feeling. At first, I wasn’t too eager to come here, but I think we experienced a real safari rally. The fact that we made it through without issues is thanks to the incredible effort of the whole team,” Virves said after securing the second WRC2 victory of his career. His performance was good enough for fifth place overall, finishing just behind the four WRC1 cars.

Other crews driving Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 cars also performed exceptionally well. Fabrizio Zaldivar and Marcelo Der Ohannesian of the RaceSeven team finished third in the WRC2 category. They too managed to avoid major issues throughout the race and held off a challenge from Andreas Mikkelsen, who made his return to the Škoda brand in Kenya. “To be honest, competing against Andreas is quite challenging. He’s a driver I looked up to when I started my career,” Zaldivar commented on the battle.

Mikkelsen ultimately finished fourth on his return to the Czech manufacturer. Among WRC2 competitors, he recorded the highest number of stage wins. Out of the eighteen stages that were actually completed, he claimed victory at eight. “After our delay on Thursday, there was a lot to make up for. Even though the result wasn’t what we hoped for, there are plenty of positives,” Andreas Mikkelsen said when reflecting on his Kenyan outing. After the opening day he had to recover a deficit of nearly two minutes after running out of windscreen washer fluid, which left his windshield completely covered in mud.

Škoda crews also took sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth place in the WRC2 category. These positions were taken by Daniel Chwist and Kamil Heller (Poland), local crews Karan Patel / Tauseef Khan and Aakif Virani / Zahir Shah, and the Kenyan British duo Samman Singh Vohra and Drew Sturrock. Out of the ten WRC2 cars that reached the finish of the rally, seven were Škoda crews — in fact, all seven Škoda entries that had lined up at the start on Thursday.