SAFARI RALLY KENYA (25-28 February)
1999 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3

MITSUBISHI MAKES STEADY START TO SAFARI RALLY

Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart has made a steady start to the Safari Rally, the third round of the 1999 FIA World Rally Championship, with both World Champion Tommi Makinen, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Belgian Freddy Loix, in a Mitsubishi Carisma GT, within seconds of the leaders.

Thousands of enthusiastic fans packed Jamhuri Park, Nairobi’s polo ground, for the short first competitive section of the gruelling 2,650-kilometre rally, the only World Championship rally in Africa. On a hot afternoon in burning sunshine, competitors started the 2.42-kilometre section side by side, thrilling the crowd as they hurled their cars over the rutted, dusty course. Just four seconds spanned the top dozen crews demonstrating the competitive nature of the World Rally Championship.

Loix and co-driver Sven Smeets grabbed 11th place in their Michelin-shod Mitsubishi Carisma GT - a fine start to their first Safari Rally.

""That wasn’t too bad. The track was better than I thought and it was good fun," Loix said.

World Rally Championship leaders Tommi Makinen and Risto Mannisenmaki knew there was plenty to lose and little to gain on such a short section and coolly slipped into 12th place in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

"I would have liked a slightly faster time perhaps, but it doesn’t matter at this stage. We have many hard kilometres ahead of us and the fight in the next few days will be tough," said Makinen.

"We’ve asked the drivers to look after the cars naturally and there’s no real significance in the times at this stage. The real battle begins tomorrow," said Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager Phil Short.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions and Carisma GTs hold three of the top four places in the Group N production category, with Oman’s Hamed Al Wahaibi, driving a Lancer Evolution, leading the way. He is hotly pursued by last year’s Group N victor Luis Climent of Spain, with a third Mitsubishi in the hands of Austrian Manfred Stohl in fourth position.

The first leg continues on Friday, with a 779-kilometre loop on the plains south of Kenya’s capital Nairobi. It includes another four competitive sections.