NAIROBI, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's motor sport rallying officials have announced new raft of measures aimed at making the Safari Rally to be admitted as World Rally Championship Candidate (WRC) Event in 2019.
Phineas Kimathi, president of the Kenya Motor Sport Federation (KMSF), told journalists in Nairobi that Nairobi was prepared to host the event as the 2019 WRC candidature standing that will see the championship admitted to the global status in 2020 if it meets Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) standards.
Since November 17, 2017 when the World Rally Championship Project was launched in Nairobi, Kimathi said, work on the route design has got underway so as to make the country stage the Safari Rally in a spectacular style within enclosed roads to meet the requirements of the global motor sport organization.
"We shall offer three route options from which FIA will select which ones to use for the three-year contract that we have signed with them to run between 2020 and 2022," Kimathi, himself a former rally diver, said on Wednesday evening.
He noted they have a clear-cut time table to meet all set deadlines and the federation will involve the WRC Promoter in all its undertakings in a bid to meet the international standards stipulated by FIA.
Kimathi said the federation was scouting for a "special spectator stage" for the Safari Rally that will be held in accordance with the required regulations.
The Safari Rally lost its global position in 2002 owing to spectator safety issues and next year's Candidate Event, is the precursor of a possible admission in 2020.
Organizers started preparations for the 2019 WRC Candidate Event in March that culminated in signing an agreement between Kenya officials and the WRC Promoter's Managing Director Oliver Ciesla in Paris on June 21 which granted Kenya the coveted status.
