Rwanda’s reigning motorsport rally champion Giancarlo Davite is leaving nothing to chance as he braces up for his third career Safari Rally participation. This time, he will participate with a different set of wheels.
The 2023 World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally is a seven-round world championship series slated for June 22-25 in Nairobi and Navisha.
It’s Davite’s tenth time competing in the Safari Rally; this is his third since returning to the WRC with his longtime co-driver Sylvia Vindevogel calling the notes.
Speaking about the R5 car, Davite said he wanted to enter the WRS Safari Rally with a different car last year. However, he couldn’t find one he chose.
With a more elegant look than his previous years of the Subaru STI and the Mitsubishi Evolution X, Davite believes the luminous marque will enable him to run the Kenyan premier event competitively against regional and European competitors.
“We unveil our Ford Fiesta Rally2 for the next WRC Safari. For the third time running, we shall compete in a WRC event, the legendary Kenyan round. And this year we decided to upgrade. We entered a Rally2, just behind the most famous Rally1 cars!”
The driver from Rwanda continued: “We know Kenyan roads.” We know how to attack and manage them. There is only one thing to do. Reach the end and the results will follow! Remember, it is Safari. It is not over until it’s over.”
In 2021, the crew sponsored by Agrotect and Osho Chemicals Ltd did not make it to the rally because one of their crew members suffered from Covid-19. Last year, mechanical problems forced his retirement at the penultimate stage.
Sylvia Vindevogel said that in a few days at the Safari, our Little Bee looks like our sweet Miss EvoX. Giancarlo and Myself will participate in the coming event in partnership with Asad Anwar, Hamza Anwar and a lot of sponsors. I will close one year of bad luck with loads of optimism and looking forward to the fresh dust on areas around Lake Naivasha.
The Federation of International Automobiles (FIA) has approved over 33 drivers featuring 10 World Rally Team priority 1 vehicles, 12 priority 2 entrants and 5 priority 3 contraptions.
Davite is listed among the 14-Rally 2 cars alongside Karan Patel’s Ford Fiesta, Oliver Solberg in a Skoda Fabia Evo, Polish star Kajetan Kajetanowicz in a Škoda Fabia RS, Grégoire Munster (Ford Fiesta), Carl “Flash” Tundo (Skoda), Piero Canobbio of Kilifi in a Hyundai i20 NG Rally 2, Aakif Virani in a Skoda Fabia and Czech’s Martin Prokop among others.
